20 Gallery Wall Ideas for Every Room and Style

A gallery wall turns a blank or awkward wall into the focal point of a room. It also gives the art, photos and objects you love one place to live. Many people know Minted for its cards, but it also sells art from independent artists, and you'll see some of their pieces in the examples below.

In this article, we'll share 20 gallery wall ideas, from layouts and tricky spots to ideas for each room. And a short "Before you hang" section at the end goes over the measurements you'll need.

1. Hang a tight grid of matching frames

Interior Design: Natalie Hager Interiors / Photography: Joseph Bradshaw

A grid is the tidiest kind of gallery wall, with frames of the same size set in even rows and columns. It looks calm and structured, with a contemporary feel. It looks especially good above a sideboard, dresser or console, or in a dining room.

The trick is the repetition. When every frame and mat is identical, photos of different sizes and subjects start to look like one set. That makes a grid a smart choice for family photos, which rarely match on their own.

How to pull it off:

• Do the math first. Decide how many pieces you want and how they split into rows. Six pieces make two rows of three.
• Keep the gaps exactly the same across and down, and no wider than 3 inches.
• Use a laser level so every row sits dead straight. In a grid, even a slight tilt shows.

For a ready-made grid, Minted's "The Grid" wall uses Sara Hicks Malone's Tonality I, II, III and IV, four matching prints. Each one is 18x24 and matted in a walnut wood frame.

2. Keep mixed sizes inside a crisp rectangle

Interior Design: J.D. Ireland Interior Architecture + Design / Photography: Trevor B Parker

This layout sits halfway between a grid and a salon wall. The frames inside come in different sizes and shapes, but the outside edges line up into one clean rectangle, like a finished puzzle. You'll sometimes see it called a Tetris or Mondrian layout.

It's a good fit if you love the variety of a salon wall but want it to look tidy. It works especially well above a sofa, a bench or a long console, where the furniture already makes a strong straight line for the art to echo. Because the outline is so crisp, you can mix in things that don't match at all, like old documents, family photos and a small mirror, and the wall still reads as one unit. Leftover gaps are normal, so it's worth keeping a small square frame or two on hand to slot into them.

How to pull it off:

• Decide the size of the rectangle first and mark its corners on the wall with painter's tape. Above furniture, aim for two-thirds to three-quarters of its width.
• Hang the pieces that sit on the corners and edges first, so each one touches the outline. Then fill in the middle.
• Line up the outer edges exactly. Inside, keep the gaps close to the usual 2 to 3 inches, even if they can't all match, and use one frame color if the pieces are very mixed.

3. Go eclectic with a salon-style wall

Interior Design: Casagrande Studio / Photography: Jared Kuzia

A salon wall is a looser take that mixes frame sizes, shapes and mediums. Paintings, photos and prints can hang side by side, even with a small mirror among them. The result looks collected over time rather than bought in one go.

It's also forgiving. With so many pieces, the eye moves across the whole wall instead of stopping on any one frame, so an odd mix still reads as a group. It works in a hallway or above a sofa or bed. It also suits a dark, moody wall, where the frames glow against the paint.

How to pull it off:

• Mix square, horizontal and vertical pieces, and work in three or four identical small frames to give the mix some consistency.
• Balance sizes and colors on either side of an imaginary center line, so one side doesn't feel heavier.
• Let the top edges rise and fall, and nudge pieces so the gaps don't line up into long straight channels.
• Keep the cluster within a set area, such as about 15 feet of a 30-foot wall.

The "Autumnal Neutrals" wall shows the look with nine pieces from 5x7 to 16x20. The frames are white wood, black wood and matte brass, and some pieces are matted while others are float mounted.

4. Build the wall around one statement piece

Interior Design: Meet West Studio / Photography: Rett Peek

Here, one large piece takes most of the attention, and smaller pieces gather around it. The big piece gives the eye a place to start, so the wall feels settled even if the rest is a mix.

This layout works well if you don't have much art yet or are still collecting. You don't need a dozen pieces. Three is enough to begin, and you can add more over time. It's a natural fit above a bed, where one large piece already makes sense.

How to pull it off:

• Hang the largest piece first, either centered or a little off-center, and build around it.
• Keep the spacing around the statement piece even, so the smaller pieces look placed, not scattered.
• Leave room on each side to layer in new pieces as you find them.

"The Bold" wall is built this way. Its largest piece is Blaze by Cyrille Gulassa, a 24x30 framed canvas, and four smaller pieces from 8x10 to 18x24 sit with it.

5. Keep it to a pair or a trio

Interior Design: J.D. Ireland Interior Architecture + Design / Photography: Stacy Zarin Goldberg

The smallest gallery wall is just two or three pieces. A pair is called a diptych and a set of three is a triptych, and both look deliberate with very little effort. They're also the easiest to plan, because there's hardly any layout to work out.

The pieces can match exactly, or they can simply be related, by the same artist, the same colors or the same subject. A pair made to go together, like Roadtripping 1 and 2 by Kamala Nahas, takes the guesswork out of matching. If your two pieces differ in size, line up their centers or their bottom edges so the pair still looks planned. Some sets split one image across two or three panels, so the picture carries on from one frame to the next. A pair is flexible, too. You can hang it side by side above a console, stack it on a narrow wall, or split it between two rooms if you move.

How to pull it off:

• Keep the pieces close, about 2 to 3 inches apart, so they read as one piece rather than two that happen to be near each other.
• Above a sofa or bed, treat the pair or trio as one wide piece and size it to two-thirds to three-quarters of the furniture's width.
• For a trio, keep all three the same size, or put the largest in the middle with a smaller piece on each side.

6. Run a gallery wall up the staircase

Residential Build: Adams + Beasley Associates / Photography: Michael J. Lee

A staircase wall is a large stretch of wall that often gets overlooked. Frames that follow the rise of the stairs fill it and turn a pass-through space into something to look at.

It's also easy to add to over time. Collecting pieces slowly, such as antique silhouettes gathered over a few years, is part of the charm. There are fewer rules than on a living room wall, so it's a nice place to be a little bolder, whether that's mixing metallic frames or hanging the pieces close together.

How to pull it off:

• Start with a large anchor piece near the bottom of the stairs and follow the diagonal up.
• Build out in vertical waves on either side of that line as you add pieces.
• Put a dab of putty on the bottom corners of the lower frames, so people passing with laundry baskets don't knock them crooked.

7. Turn a hallway into a gallery

Interior Design: M·C Interiors / Photography: Tim Lenz

A hallway is a space you walk through many times a day and rarely stop in. Lining it with art gives you something to look at on the way, and a plain corridor starts to feel like a small gallery.

Halls are narrow, so you'll mostly see the art up close and at an angle. That suits photographs, drawings and prints with lots of detail, which reward a closer look. One straight row of matching frames pulls the eye toward the far end, which helps a short hall feel longer. In a wider hall, alternating large and small pieces gives a more collected look, and if the hall is long enough you can hang art on both sides. Don't forget the wall at the very end. One larger piece there gives the eye somewhere to land.

How to pull it off:

• Keep one center line all the way down the hall, about 57 inches from the floor, so the pieces flow even when their sizes change.
• Choose slim frames that don't stick out far, and keep the art clear of door swings and light switches.
• If there's a hall table, use its edges, or the lamps on it, as the outer limits of the art above.

A run of photography prints in one frame color suits a long hall, since landscapes and city scenes read like a row of windows as you walk past.

8. Cover a whole wall from floor to ceiling

Instead of a cluster above one piece of furniture, this idea covers the whole wall. It gives a room an art gallery feel, and it's especially good with high ceilings, where a small grouping would look lost.

Using black frames for everything keeps a floor-to-ceiling wall from feeling busy. Mixing in a few everyday, non-precious objects keeps it relaxed.

How to pull it off:

• Stick to one frame color, such as all black, and a simple palette to pull a large wall together.
• Go bigger. Larger prints with smaller gaps between them have more impact than lots of tiny frames.
• With high ceilings, use larger works to fill the height and add picture lights for a polished finish.

A mix of large and medium prints in one frame color, like these prints for the living room, gives this look without hundreds of small pieces.

9. Fit a mini gallery wall into a narrow or awkward spot

Interior Design: Yellow House Architects / Photography: William Abranowitz

Not every gallery wall needs a big wall. A small grouping of three to six pieces is a good way to fill a spot too small for one large piece.

Think about the leftover spaces in your home, like the strip of wall between two windows or the wall beside a bathroom sink. The corner around a doorway counts too, and so does the low wall under a slanted ceiling. A mini gallery wall makes those spots look planned.

How to pull it off:

• For narrow walls, stack small pieces in a single vertical line.
• Use matching pairs, side by side or one above the other. Two of a kind tend to look intentional.
• In a bathroom, keep art well away from the shower and anywhere water splashes.

A ready-made pair or set of three fits these spots well, such as Mary Gaspar's Magnolias In Bloom 1 and 2.

10. Give the bathroom its own gallery wall

Interior Design: Tete-a-tete / Photography: Lacey Land

Bathrooms are easy to forget when you're hanging art, but a gallery wall gives a plain, practical room some personality. It's a nice surprise for guests, too. A powder room, which is small and mostly used by visitors, is a natural place for something a little playful.

Pick the biggest stretch of wall, often the one above the toilet or the tub, and give it one compact group rather than scattering pieces around the room. Steam is the main thing to plan around. A powder room with no shower can take almost any art. In a full bathroom, choose prints over precious originals, and skip canvas, since moisture can affect it over time. Water and the color blue are an easy match for a bathroom, as in Tides of Motion by Tania Medeiros, and you can also pull colors from your towels or tile. There's plenty more art for the bathroom to browse if you'd rather go another way. If there's a mirror, try hanging the art on the wall opposite it, so you see the art twice.

How to pull it off:

• Hang the group well away from the shower and anywhere water splashes, and keep the room well ventilated.
• Choose framed prints under glass or acrylic, which keeps the paper protected from damp air.
• On tile, where you can't drill, use adhesive strips rated for each piece's weight.

11. Dress the dining room

Interior Design: EDIT Design House / Photography: Zolataia Photography

A dining room often sits empty between meals, and a gallery wall makes it feel finished even when no one's eating. It also gives everyone something to talk about over dinner.

The most natural spot is above a sideboard or buffet, which anchors the art the way a sofa does in a living room. If there's no sideboard, the wall beside the table works too. A theme that suits the room helps. Food is a fun one, from fruit and still lifes to a favorite dish, and Avocado and Roast Chicken by Elliott Stokes, both 11x14 prints, would make a good start. Travel photos from trips you've taken together are another option. In a large dining room, you can go floor to ceiling and pick up the colors of your chairs or rug. In a smaller one, a few pieces with a mirror or a sconce among them keeps the wall from feeling heavy.

How to pull it off:

• If the table isn't centered on the wall, center the art on the table instead, since that's where everyone looks when they sit down.
• Above a sideboard, keep the group to two-thirds to three-quarters of its width.
• Look at the wall again with the lights low. Dining rooms are often lit by a pendant or candles, so pieces with strong shapes and contrast show up best.

12. Use picture ledges if you don't want holes

Interior Design: Bethany Adams Interiors / Photography: JL Jordan Photography

Picture ledges, or narrow shelves, hold art leaning against the wall instead of hanging it. They're ideal for renters and for anyone who's nervous about putting lots of holes in the wall, because you make a few for the ledge and none for the art.

They also make the wall easy to change. You can swap pieces with the seasons and slot in new finds as you get them. A peg rail with art hung from it works the same way.

How to pull it off:

• If you stack two ledges, leave enough room between them for your tallest pieces.
• Overlap frames for a casual look, and mix in a book, a small plant or a vase.
• If you change the display often, matching frames or black and white art help it look like one set.

13. Hang art around a mirror

Interior Design: EDIT Design House / Photography: Zolataia Photography

A mirror makes a good centerpiece for a gallery wall, with prints arranged around it. You can also skip the art and hang a group of mirrors in different shapes.

The mirror bounces light around and reflects the art across the room, so it makes a small room feel bigger. It works especially well in entryways, hallways and other tight spaces.

How to pull it off:

• Hang the mirror first, centered on the furniture below it, then build the art out from there.
• For an all-mirror wall, mix round, oval and arched shapes so it doesn't look like a store display.
• Keep the art light and airy, so it doesn't fight the reflection.

Prints in one light palette suit a mirror, like the seven pieces in white and natural wood frames that make up the coastal "Summer Breeze" wall.

14. Mix plates, baskets and other objects in with the art

A gallery wall doesn't have to be all frames. Plates, small sculptures and other 3D objects add depth and texture that flat art can't.

Plates and ceramics

Hanging plates brings color and pattern to a wall, plus some texture. They suit a dining room or kitchen. In the dining room of a SoHo loft by Cola Studios, on TALD, the gallery wall is a set of square green ceramic pieces.

Baskets, textiles and found objects

You can make a wall out of woven baskets, hats or anything else you have a lot of. A tapestry or other textile adds softness. In one home tour, interior designer Mindy Gayer hangs small art on the pegboard walls of her studio, mixed in with found objects and potted plants.

How to pull it off:

• Hang the largest object first, then balance sizes and colors on each side.
• Mix a few framed prints in among the objects, so it still reads as a gallery wall rather than a collection.

15. Add words

Interior Design: Sissy Yellen Living / Photography: Emily Engler, Joseph Tiano

A word or a short line of text gives a gallery wall a voice. It might be a favorite quote, a line from a book or film, your family name, a monogram, or an old sign with a word you love. Among pictures, a piece of text stands out and makes people stop to read.

One or two word pieces are usually enough. Any more and the wall starts to feel like a page of slogans, so let the art and photos carry most of it and use the words as a pause. Text fits almost anywhere. A cheeky phrase suits a powder room, and a name print suits a child's room. A word that means something to you can even be the piece you start from, with everything else chosen around it. Letterboards are fun as well, since you can change the message whenever you like.

How to pull it off:

• Match the lettering to the wall's style, with clean type for a modern wall or hand lettering for a looser, more personal one.
• Give the text piece the same frame as some of the art, so it looks like part of the group.
• Hang it a little off-center, where it reads as a pause between pictures rather than a headline.

If you'd like a word piece that's also art, there's a whole page of typography prints by independent artists.

16. Frame family photos and keepsakes

Interior Design: Kristen Elizabeth Design / Photography: Ellen Vanessa Photography

Your own photos and mementos make the most personal kind of gallery wall, one that tells your family's story.

Black and white photos

Printing photos in black and white makes them less busy and helps snapshots from different years look like a set. In a mountain home entryway by Williams Papadopoulos Design, on TALD, black and white framed photos hang above a wood console.

Keepsakes

Almost anything can go on the wall, from ticket stubs and old letters to your children's drawings. You could even put the key to your first house in a shadow box.

How to pull it off:

• Use one frame color and white mats, so photos of different sizes look like they belong together.
• Mix in one or two pieces of art, so the wall doesn't read as a photo board.

17. Give kids their own gallery

Interior Design: White Couch Design / Photography: Caitlin Cunningham

A gallery wall in a child's room can grow up with them. Start with a theme or palette they love, like outer space, animals or a favorite color, and build the wall around it with prints, photos and a few small objects on a shelf. Letting your child help choose the pieces makes the room feel like theirs.

Their own artwork deserves a place too, in their room or on a family wall. Kids make art faster than anyone can frame it, so a setup that changes easily helps. Frames that open at the front let you swap a drawing in seconds, and some hold a stack of older pieces behind the one on show. In a playroom, a row of clips on a wire or a few clipboards does the same job. A drawing framed just like the "real" art shows your child it matters, and it often looks better than you'd expect. To keep a favorite for good, you can also turn it into custom art made from a drawing.

How to pull it off:

• Choose canvas, or frames with acrylic instead of glass, which is safer if a piece gets knocked off the wall.
• Hang at least part of the wall low enough for your child to see it properly from their own height.
• Keep one frame color across the wall, so bright, busy kids' art looks like a set.

"The Kids" wall puts seven pieces together, from White Bengal Tiger by Ashley Peterson at 8x10 up to a 24x24 framed canvas, with a custom photo print in the mix.

18. Run one color through every piece

This idea ties together art that differs in subject and size with one shared color. A floral, an abstract and a photograph can sit side by side and look curated, as long as the same color runs through all of them.

How to pull it off:

• Pick three core colors, including your main one, that show up in every piece. Then repeat those colors in the room. In another home tour, designer Molly Berry uses the art's accent colors to choose the flowers in a nearby vase or the bedspread.
• If the wall has a lot of color, add a few neutral or black and white pieces to give the eye a rest.
• Paint the wall, or a panel behind the frames, in a shade that picks up the art. Isabella Patrick Interiors, on TALD, set art against a deep green wall in an Upper West Side living room.

"The Golden Hour" wall shows a single palette at work. Its eight pieces are in warm desert tones and run from 8x10 to 24x18.

19. Go all black and white

Taking the color out is one of the simplest ways to make a mixed wall look calm and pulled together. When every piece is black and white, photos, line drawings and abstracts can hang side by side, even when they differ in subject and size. It suits almost any room, and it's a smart choice for a room that already has plenty of color or pattern. For new pieces, there's a full page of black-and-white prints to mix in with your own photos.

This idea goes further than the black and white family photos in idea 16. Here the whole wall is monochrome art, and mixing mediums gives it depth, such as a photograph beside a charcoal sketch or a bold graphic print. Variety within the black and white keeps it interesting. Some pieces should be mostly white with fine lines, others mostly black, and a few should sit in the grays between. It's a forgiving look to build on later, too, since any new black and white piece will fit in.

How to pull it off:

• Spread the light, dark and in-between pieces evenly, so one side of the wall doesn't feel heavier than the other.
• Stick to black frames, or a mix of black and white frames, with white mats for a crisp look.
• Paint the wall a deep gray or black for a moody version, or keep it white for a clean, gallery feel.

20. Stick to one subject

One theme can hold a wall together even when the sizes and frames are all different. Seascapes, botanicals, florals, maps or black and white photos all work.

Picture a set of floral paintings in assorted sizes around an entry table. The frames don't match, but it looks deliberate, because every piece is about the same thing.

How to pull it off:

• Be choosy about what goes on the wall. One piece that doesn't fit the theme can make the whole wall look less deliberate.
• Within your subject, vary the size, frame and medium. A wall of animals could mix a safari photo with a watercolor and a charcoal sketch.
• Match the theme to the room. Botanicals suit the wall by the garden door, and travel prints suit a hallway.

The travel-themed "Wayfarer" wall is a good example, with a custom coordinates print and a Stockholm map, by artists based in Chicago, Nairobi and other cities.

Before you hang

Before you make a single hole, plan the wall on paper. Lay your pieces out on the floor first. Then trace each frame on kraft paper, cut out the shapes and tape them to the wall. If you mark the hanging point on each template, you can nail straight through the paper. When you're happy with it, hang the largest piece first and work out from there, using a level as you go. If you're renting, picture ledges or adhesive strips rated for each piece's weight let you skip the nails. With strips, give them an hour to bond before you hang the art.

Under the "57 rule," you treat the whole group as one big piece and hang it so its center is about 57 inches from the floor.

For more detail, including how wide to go above a queen or king bed, see this guide to choosing the right art size.

This guide to hanging art without nails covers more renter-friendly ways to do it.

Interior Design: Lex & Hudson / Photography: Sean Litchfield

Choosing your gallery wall

With 20 ideas to choose from, the best place to start is the wall you have and the pieces you already own or love. If you like order, a grid or a crisp rectangle will suit you. A salon wall gives a collected look, and ledges are perfect if holes aren't an option. Don't overlook the tricky spots, either. A hallway, a staircase or a small bathroom is often where a gallery wall makes the biggest difference.

Once you've settled on a layout, a curated gallery wall gives you pieces that already work together, or you can start from a pair or set and add to it over time. If you're a designer, you can apply for trade access through TALD.

If you'd like a second set of eyes, an interior designer on TALD can help plan the wall and the room around it.