How to Create a Gallery Wall (Step by Step)

A gallery wall is one of the best things you can do to a room. Done well, it turns a blank wall into something that says something — about the places you've been, the art you love, the people in your life. Done badly, it looks like someone stuck things up in a hurry and hoped for the best.

The good news: it's genuinely not difficult. It just needs a little planning before you pick up a hammer. This guide walks you through the whole thing, from blank wall to finished result, with no guesswork required.

What is a gallery wall?

A gallery wall is a curated collection of art, prints, or photos displayed together as a group on a single wall. It can be two pieces or twenty. It can be a tight symmetrical grid or a loose, layered arrangement. What makes it a gallery wall rather than just a bunch of stuff on a wall is intention — the pieces are chosen and placed to work together.

Step 1: Choose your wall

Not every wall works equally well. The best gallery walls tend to go in places where you actually look — above a sofa, along a hallway, up a staircase, or on the wall you face when you walk into a room.

Avoid walls that get a lot of direct sunlight (it fades prints over time) or that are in humid rooms like bathrooms unless you're using canvases or framed works behind glass.

If you're unsure which wall to use, stand in your room and notice where your eye naturally goes when you sit down. That's your wall.

Step 2: Decide on a layout style

There are three main approaches, and none of them is wrong — it depends on your space and your personality.

If you want to see how different layouts look in your actual space before you commit to anything, Fy!'s AI Gallery Wall Designer does this for you — you tell it your wall dimensions and it builds out arrangements you can actually buy. Worth doing before step 3.

Step 3: Pick your pieces

This is the fun bit, and also where most people get stuck. A few things that help:

Start with one anchor piece. Usually the largest, or the one you feel most strongly about. Everything else is chosen in relation to it — colours, mood, scale. You're building a conversation, not a collection of unrelated things.

Think about cohesion, not uniformity. Your pieces don't have to match, but they should belong together. That can come from a shared colour palette, a consistent subject matter (botanical prints, travel photography, abstract line work), a consistent frame style, or just a general feeling. Trust your gut here more than rules.

Odd numbers tend to work better than even ones — especially for smaller arrangements. Three pieces feels more dynamic than two; five feels more interesting than four. The exception is a symmetrical grid, where pairs are the whole point.

Mix up sizes. A gallery wall of identically sized prints can feel flat. Varying the sizes — a couple of large pieces anchoring smaller ones around them — gives the arrangement rhythm.

At Fy! you can find everything you need in one place: art from over 5,000 independent artists (including artists local to you if you want work that means something specific), your own photos printed and pre-framed, and pre-curated sets if you want the choosing done for you. More on that below.

Step 4: Choose your frames

Frames matter more than people think. They're what ties the whole thing together — or pulls it apart.

Matching frames give a clean, intentional look. Classic black, natural oak, or a simple white frame all work across a huge range of art styles. If you're going for a grid layout, matching frames are almost always the right call.

Mixed frames can look brilliant but need a unifying thread — stick to the same finish (all wood tones, or all metals) even if the shapes vary, or the same colour family even if the styles differ.

Box frames vs classic frames — box frames (where the art sits behind a deeper shadow box) tend to suit more contemporary interiors. Classic flat frames suit everything from traditional to modern. Both are available at Fy! ready to hang, so you're not waiting around for something to arrive in a tube and then hunting for a frame to fit.

Mounts (mats) — a white or off-white mount around a print makes it look considerably more gallery and considerably less IKEA. If you're buying prints on their own rather than framed sets, it's worth considering mount sizes in your planning.

Step 5: Plan the layout before you touch the wall

This is the step most people skip and then regret.

Cut out paper templates — newspaper works fine — to the exact size of each frame, and tape them to the wall with painter's tape. Live with it for a day. Walk past it. Sit down and look at it. You'll know pretty quickly if the spacing feels right or if something needs to shift.

A few placement rules that actually hold up:

Eye level means eye level when seated, not standing. For a living room gallery wall, the centre of the arrangement should sit at roughly 140-145cm from the floor — this is where your eye lands when you're sitting on the sofa.

The 2-3 rule for gaps. Keep the spacing between frames consistent — 5-8cm is a good starting point. Too much space and the arrangement fragments into individual pieces rather than reading as a group. Too little and it feels cramped.

Furniture anchoring. The arrangement should relate to the furniture below it. Above a sofa, the gallery wall should be no wider than the sofa itself (roughly 80-90% of the sofa width is the sweet spot). Centre it above the furniture, not above the wall.

If in doubt, go bigger. The single most common gallery wall mistake is going too small. What looks generous on the floor looks modest on the wall. When you're second-guessing yourself between two sizes, go up.

Frame size reference guide

Spacing and height cheat sheet

Step 6: Hang it

Start with the anchor piece — your largest or most central print. Get that right and everything else follows from it.

Work outward from the centre rather than starting at an edge. If you start from one side, you're more likely to run out of space or end up with awkward gaps.

Use a level for each piece. It sounds obvious, but one slightly-off frame throws the whole thing.

For heavier framed pieces, use proper wall fixings rather than adhesive strips — especially on plaster walls. If you're hanging on plasterboard, find the studs or use plasterboard fixings rated for the weight.

The shortcut: pre-curated gallery wall sets

If you want a gallery wall but don't want to spend hours curating, Fy!'s 2-print and 3-print gallery wall sets are professionally styled pairs and trios of prints that are designed to hang together. The balance, contrast, and visual harmony is already done for you — you just choose the set that feels right for your room and hang it.

And if you want to build something more bespoke, the AI Gallery Wall Designer lets you plan your wall from scratch — plug in your dimensions, browse layouts, and shop the pieces you want without the guesswork.

What can you put on a gallery wall?

More than you might think. The classic answer is art prints, but a gallery wall can include:

Art prints from independent artists — Fy! has over 5,000 artists, which means you can find work that genuinely reflects your taste rather than something that looks like everyone else's wall. You can also filter by artists based in your area if you want work with a local connection.

Your own photos — printed, mounted, and framed. Particularly good for hallways and personal spaces. There's something about walking past a properly printed photo every day that a screen just doesn't give you.

Canvases — great for a more gallery feel, and they don't need frames. Can anchor a mixed arrangement.

Pre-framed art in classic or box frames — ready to hang from the moment it arrives, which is underrated as a practical consideration.

All of the above, from a single place, which means your frames can actually match and your delivery doesn't arrive in four separate parcels over three weeks.

Common gallery wall mistakes (and how to avoid them)

Going too small. Already mentioned, but it bears repeating. When in doubt, bigger.

Too many things at once. There is such a thing as too much. If you find yourself putting twenty things on the wall, ask whether you actually love all twenty or whether some of them are just filling space.

Ignoring the room. Your gallery wall exists in relation to everything else in the room — the colours, the furniture, the light. A wall of cool-toned botanical prints might feel slightly off if your sofa is terracotta and your rug is rust. You don't need everything to match, but the wall should be in conversation with the room.

Starting without a plan. The paper-template step feels unnecessary until you've hung something in the wrong place and been left with a wall full of holes.

Frequently asked questions

How many pieces do I need for a gallery wall? There's no minimum. Two prints hung as a pair can be a gallery wall. Most arrangements sit between three and nine pieces — enough to feel considered, not so many that it becomes overwhelming.

What size should a gallery wall be? As a rule, the total width of the arrangement should be roughly 75-80% of the width of the furniture below it, or 50-60% of the wall width if there's no furniture. The arrangement should feel like it belongs to the wall, not lost on it.

Do frames need to match? No, but there should be a thread of consistency — same finish, same colour family, or the same style. Completely random frames tend to feel chaotic rather than curated.

How high should I hang a gallery wall? The visual centre of the arrangement should sit at around 145cm from the floor in a room where you stand, or 140cm in a living room where you mainly sit.

Can I create a gallery wall without making lots of holes? Yes, to a degree. Adhesive picture strips (Command strips) work well for lighter prints and are removable without damage. For anything heavier than about 2kg per frame, proper fixings are safer and more secure.

What's the easiest way to create a gallery wall? Start with a pre-curated 2-print or 3-print set where the curation is already done, or use Fy!'s AI Gallery Wall Designer to plan your own arrangement before you buy anything.

Fy! is an art marketplace featuring over 5,000 independent artists. Browse art prints, canvases, and pre-framed wall art — or use the AI Gallery Wall Designer to plan your wall before you buy.