The Secret to Gallery Walls

 ALL ABOUT THE GALLERY WALL 

Whether you’re looking to showcase some of your favorite artwork or spice up that wall in your home that is missing a little something…gallery style is the answer. The best thing about a gallery wall…anything goes! Mixing photographs, mirrors, prints, paintings, and even clocks can transform a space and is a unique way to document and tell a story of your travels and experiences. Before you get started, we thought we’d share a few things to help inspire and guide you through your own gallery wall project. And when you’re done, head down to The Range in Canmore and check out our most recent gallery wall design in person…but be hungry when you get there, it smells delish! 

PICKING YOUR PIECES 

Finding pieces that have a sense of story to them and creating a colour palette is a great place to start. The more eclectic the better, don’t be afraid to mix illustrations with photos and paintings. Showcase certain colours or keep it neutral with black and white – it’s entirely up to you. For the gallery wall we created, we used everything from poems to silkscreened photos, to settlement-era newspaper cuttings that were further layered with Vellum paper. Feel free to mix and match picture frames that have been collected over time or for a cleaner look, frames in the same color and style work too.

PLAY WITH THE LAYOUT 

Organizing your pieces is next; this is going to help you identify the best layout that works for your gallery wall. We recommend laying everything on the floor and trying a few different set ups. At Sticks and Stones we take it a step further and used our computer drafting program, AutoCAD to create various layouts until we achieved the perfect result.

INSTALLATION TIME 

Once you’re happy with the layout it’s time to measure and mark where you’ll be hanging each item. Enjoy a little Charlie Parker tune and watch as we install a 22-piece gallery wall full of selections (and in some cases, making) the collection, which includes silk-screened Douglas Fir panels + a poem by Robert Frost + antique mirrors + geographic coordinates + black/white photography + historic newsprint layered with iconography.