How to Create a Photo Wall
A Unique Picture Showpiece for Your Home
In many home magazines, a room with a photo wall is often shown. But leave it up to the average person to create one of these amazing and chic decoration and conversation pieces, and they're often lost. By following this guide to creating an elegant and coordinated photo wall, you'll have a decorative area in your house you'll be proud to share.
Placement
Pick a wall in your home that gets lots of viewing, but not too much traffic. As people move through your space, they'll sometimes rub up against photos or knock them askew. If there's a wide passageway, the wall should work well for the display. Good walls to choose are stairway walls or living room walls. Try to pick an otherwise blank wall; this is why staircase walls work well. Nothing taller than a couch should be pushed against the wall, and other art should find a new home.
Base color
If you really want to make your photo wall a focal point in the room, consider painting the wall beneath a bright color, or a darker color (like dark brown or black) to make frames really pop. White is also a great color for a clean slate, or you may opt for your walls to match the rest of the room so that the wall can blend in when it needs to.
A common element
When choosing frames and photos, the key to a great arrangement is to have one common element throughout the display. You can have frames of the same size, but all different colors, or you can have frames of the same color in different sizes. Your photos can all be black and white, or sepia, or with a red tint. Maybe they all have vibrant colors, and that's what unites them. Perhaps every photo frame in the display has a white mat around the photo and inside the lines of the frame. Whatever your common element, make sure it stretches to every piece in the collection and that's the key to making it look elegant and organized.
Installation
This is where it's important to take the extra time to do it right. Buy picture hangers and make sure you have your level handy. Making sure the photos are straight in their frames is important, but hanging each frame straight is equally critical.
As you hang each frame, consider its relationship to the frames around it. For example, if your frames are arranged in a grid fashion, you'll need to measure the distance between each frame to make sure the grid is evenly spaced. Even if they're staggered and placed willy-nilly, it's still a good idea to measure a standard width between frame placements. Use the level while hanging, and make sure each frame is straight before moving on to the next.
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