Art Walls: A How-To
Alright, after all my posts on art walls over the past three years, I think it’s time for a how-to. And what better way to illustrate this than with an entire art gallery at my disposal? Yup, it’s an art-loving decorator’s dream come true! Let me tell you what went down.
By now you’ve heard about the party I co-hosted with Huff Harrington Home last Friday. For the party we decided to install an art wall in the kitchen area of the store, using art from Huff Harrington Fine Art Gallery.
They basically let me loose in the gallery and with the help of my fellow art fiend and very dear friend Kyle (publicist extraordinaire and owner of & She Told Two Friends Communications) we went from this:
to this:
Not bad for an afternoon’s work, right? So, on to the how-to part. Let me just preface this by saying this is just my personal approach developed over years of installing them; no hard and fast rules here.
Okay, so in choosing your art, try to find some common element whether it be medium, color palette, theme or even just the same frames. This is what will make an art wall cohesive and make everything hang together. (Ha, see what I did there?)
For instance in this case, my common element was the color palette. I first chose the sepia colored drawing in the middle, then layered in that ballet dancer at the bottom. Together, they gave me the basic palette – muted blues, pinks and gold. When we found the large painting of the exterior of the house, it pulled it all together. We then fleshed it out with smaller pieces with similar colors. A predominantly French theme also happened to emerge in the subject of the pieces. That was a bonus since it fit the French party we were throwing.
When it comes to hanging, I don’t have the patience for measuring, templates, etc. I eyeball and go with what looks good to me. I realize that’s not exactly helpful but there are some tips I can give you for guidance:
- If you have a key, large piece, place that in the middle and build out from there. Here it was the sepia drawing.
-Think in terms of an overall shape for the cluster of art such as a square or rectangle or in my case, it’s more or less a pyramid. Think also about how much of the wall you want to cover and whether you want symmetry or something more loose.
- Keep spacing between the pieces as even as possible.
-If you’re using a mix of frames like I did here, spread them out evenly so similar ones are not all grouped together. The same goes for colors in the art.
-Lay out all the pieces on the floor and move them around until it looks good to you. Snap a photo with your phone for reference as you start hanging.
-If you’re eyeballing it, here’s Kyle’s method: hold the piece of art where you want it by the wire/hook it will hang from. Wet your finger (yes, by “wet” I mean spit on it) and mark the wall. Nail your hook on the mark – before the spit dries(!) Nothing could be easier!
(We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do a little styling while we were at it!)
I’ve had a lot of conversations with readers and clients who are intimidated by art walls or don’t know where to begin so I hope this helps you get started. And if you have any tips of your own, please leave them in the comments.
(Photos: FROM THE RIGHT BANK)
Am i the only one not seeing the photos?? For your last two posts, I can only see little blue question marks : ) Hasn’t happened on any other sites, so I thought you might want to know.
Is anyone else having a problem seeing photos?
I’m having the blue square problem too – quite a lot on your site recently, various posts. Have seen it on some other sites too.
This post has the first picture and the rest are blue squares. I’m on a fairly sluggish connection but I get a 404 not found message if I right click and try to open in a new tab.
Shame – I seriously need to learn how to do an art wall
mac lion/safari.
If anyone else is having this problem, could you please leave a comment and also how you view the blog – whether by email, through a reader or directly on the site. Also, if you could tell me how long you have been having the problem and on whether it’s on all the posts or just some, that will be helpful. Thanks!
Helen: Thanks for letting me know. I’m going to email you for more specific information to try and figure out what is going on.
I love your gallery wall series! And I love installing them in clients’ homes — it adds so much. When installing gallery walls at clients’ homes, I love to use brown kraft paper to get the wall just right. I cut a piece out for each framed piece and then tape each on the wall, moving them around until I find just the right spatial arrangement. It can take a little longer but the results are pretty much guaranteed.
Okay, so I do my fair share of lurking… But only because it’s therapeutic to just
Look at the Pretty and also, sometimes, words fail. Like now – I NEED that picture above what appears to be the dishwasher. Can you tell me ANYTHING about it so I can find it on their site? It looks so much like the courtyard of our favorite hotel in Paris – my husband will consider me a hero forever if I could bring that home… So no pressure or anything… But clearly Married Life Itself now Depends upon You…!
Also, I capitalize whimsically. If I could italicize… O to the M to the G. Best I can’t, really. Shutting up now.
LOL. That’s one of my favorite pieces too. I’m going to hook you up with the gallery. You need to see that artist’s other pieces too! Emailing you now…..
Could you e-mail me the name of the artist and gallery as well, please? I love that painting of the exterior of the house so much. What a great post!
If you click on the link and it’ll take you to their website where you can contact them. I don’t know who the artist is but just tell them it’s the one in my art wall and they’ll be able to give you all the information.
I have just hung an art wall with a 75 year old German builder. We did the same thing- laid it out on the floor, then drew a little map of all the pieces. He then got me to measure the distance of the gaps between the pictures in mms & note them on the drawn map. Then he started hanging them from the middle out. He used screws to put them into the plasterboard walls. Then a 2 inch piece of Blu tak down the bottom middle of the picture to keep it straight. It all worked so well & it looks fantastic and dramatic. It had changed the whole feel of the room- I’m so glad I did it.
Beautiful! Great job Ally! x
Looks great. I always just eyeball things also or I make templates from paper and hang them that way. You are so great at styling things!