When I think of this type of display, I imagine the walls at the Royal Academy Summer Shows. This year the exhibition included over 1000 pieces of art which makes the idea of picking 5 or 10 pieces for your own wall a bit easier to deal with!
This year the RA like selected and curated this years exhibition with the help of video conferencing and social distancing. Check out their little behind the scenes video here.
Content
When it comes to creating a gallery wall in your own home it can be as big or small as you like. It could be a feature wall in your living room, a collection of prints that runs alongside your staircase, or something to look at when your guests are on the loo. Content wise you could use one medium like just Vinyl cover or a mixture e.g. photographs, prints and typography. The collection could have a theme (holidays, pop art, botanical), be linked by a shared colour palette or just be a completely random set of things you love. If you are collecting the content from scratch then it’s worth thinking beforehand if you want to hang things that are all the same size or if you want things of different scales. I prefer the latter but this is just personal preference.
Framing
Once you have got a collection of items together you need to frame them. If you are doing it yourself I would buy a selection of different colours and see what works (normally you can return them if you don’t take protective films off or damage them). If you can afford to hire a professional then take the collection into a framers and ask for their opinion on what colour frames would work to hang the collection as a group. If you are planning to add to the wall over time it’s worth considering this and buying extra frames as if you opt for a specific style it might be discontinued. If however you go for a style that is a bit of a mishmash of frames then finding different ones is part of the fun!
Hanging
Once you have your collection framed, measure out the size of the wall and use the floor (or bed if your limited for floorspace) and play around with different layouts including the size of the gaps you want between things. if you’re good on photoshop you could also do some digital layouts but it’s not as good as using the real thing. Take photos of the different combinations too and ask for second opinions if yours not sure but remember its you that will be looking at it! When you have selected your favourite layout grab your tools - you'll need nails (the type of nail will differ depending what material you are hammering in to) or picture hooks, a tape measure, pencil, rubber and a hammer. Draw lightly on the walls where the top corners of the frames will be. Measure and mark how much lower down the picture frame you want your nail holes. Start hammering and get them all up. Use a spirit level to make sure everything is straight !
P.S.
Not everything has to be in a frame, I love the 3D lettering used on the gallery wall below and you could play around with hanging all sorts of objects.
If you need some inspiration I have started a Pinterest board here.