How To Hang A Gallery Wall Without Mistakes


A gallery wall is a perfect way to display family photos or your favorite pieces of art in modern way. The grouping creates a focal point, is a perfect way to tell your story, add color, and add to your decor style.

Installing a gallery wall makes your home feel personal to you, is an inexpensive way to add art to your walls, and can be easily changed.

Believe it or not, poking that many holes in the wall doesn't have to be nerve wracking.

I'll show you how to do a gallery wall without making mistakes. I've used these diy gallery wall tips again and again to get the right gallery wall layout and avoid unnecessary holes.

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The first thing you'll need to do is take all the frames you plan to use and lay them out on the floor.

Play around with the gallery wall layout until you like what you see. I do this right in front of the wall where I'll install the photo gallery wall so that I can see how wide I'm getting. If this isn't possible you may want to take measurements and tape off a square on your floor to guide you.

Once you've decided which frames you'll be using,  label each different sized frame with a number. For example, if you have 2 of the same size they will both get the same number.

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Create a template for each frame

Trace each size frame onto a piece of newspaper with a black marker, cut it out, and label it with the same number that you gave the frame. Do this for each frame.

Now, with painter's tape, tape each of your pieces of newspaper (cut to the sizes of your frames) to the wall in the configuration that you decided on before. Don't worry about getting it perfect the first time. Just eyeball the spacing and how level they are.

Bonus Tip: Once you get it the way you want it, walk away.

Go do other stuff but walk by your photo wall every so often and see if you still like it. If there is something that bugs you now, it will bug you even more once there’s a hole in the wall. I actually left my newspaper up for a day or two, partly because my projects are done little by little (I have kiddos) and partly because I wanted to make sure I got it right.

Level each template piece

Once it's just the way you want it, level each piece of newspaper and make sure the spacing between frames is correct. Remember that your template pieces will eventually be the edges of each frame, so this is your opportunity to get it just right.

You can absolutely hang pictures the old fashioned way, but I have to tell you that this Hang and Level Picture Hanging Tool has been one of my favorite purchases ever!

It allows you to get the picture right where you want it and mark the hole perfectly every time regardless of how far the hook is from the edge of the frame.

Mark your nail holes

Using the Picture Hanging Tool, hang your frame on the tool and hold up each frame so that it's exactly on top of the piece of corresponding newspaper (remember, you already leveled the paper).

Holding the picture hanging tool in place with one hand, remove the frame from the tool and mark the nail hole by pressing the marking tab.

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Hammer in your nails

With the hole marked, gently tap your nail into the wall right through your template piece.

Finally, remove the newspaper template and hang your frame onto the wall.

Depending on how close your frames are to each other, you may want to hammer in all of your nails first before removing the template pieces and hanging your frames.

There are so many things you can display with a gallery wall depending on your home decor style.