25 July 2018
Here at WoodenStairs, we’ve discussed the benefits of updating your hallway in order for you to fall in love with your space, as well as how following the latest trends in home décor can give your home a new lease of life. However, we also understand that sometimes the areas surrounding your staircases aren’t the easiest places to inject some personality in the home. Gallery walls are one of the ways in which you can do this.
One of the benefits of a gallery wall is the ease at which you can switch out the images and photographs that you’re choosing to showcase. During the winter months, darker colour schemes with subtle metallic hints give an ingenious nod to the weather experienced outside, in conjunction with the lower levels of daylight outside. As the seasons progress into the summer, these can then be switched out for seascape photographs, and a theme that includes lots of white space, with pastel shades also prominent. The flexibility of what you can add in your gallery wall is what makes it the perfect feature for your home, so discover how you can soon be hanging your very own version in your wall today!
The planning process for creating your gallery wall is the most important. Although it requires the most time, it is worth the effort. When looking at the wall space around an area of incline, it can be slightly more difficult as you’re limited due to not being able to use a grid method, which is most frequently used for gallery walls. It is crucial that you appreciate that you are working at an angle. Starting at the bottom of the stairs, place a pin into the wall with a piece of string wrapped around this. Then, keeping this string at a level distance from your bespoke wooden stairs, place another pin once you’ve ascended the staircase. This will allow you to make sure that you’re working with a near line for which you can arrange your frames and pictures along.
Next, but before you begin to hang your artwork, grab some masking tape and begin to map out where you would like everything to be, drawing out an area which is to be the focal point of your wall. This is a necessity as it grabs the attention of the eye, allowing the rest of your images to fall into place neatly slotted around this. When creating a space for your pictures to hang, you should allow space between each frame for “breathing space”. This prevents the wall from looking too cluttered, which is essential.
If you have a more extensive selection of photographs and pictures to choose from, or if your wall is slightly harder to assess, there are also methods in which you can digitally plan out your design! Measuring the space that you have, create something with similar dimensions on Photoshop and design shapes that are correspondent to your images in size. Take photographs of the items you plan to hang and then fill the spaces you’ve mapped out in your software with the images. This way you will be able to visualise what the finished article will look like in reality.
Your gallery wall is typically going to be made up of images in frames. However, there are other elements which you can incorporate in order to best show off your personality. Things such as mirrors are perfect in this instance as they reflect the light, allowing the space to look bigger which works well in areas such as hallways. Additionally, when you are selecting which images to use, some careful consideration is also needed in picking most suitable frames. If you’re considering using images that could be classed as “busy” – bright prints, bold colours and a myriad of details – a more straightforward, plain frame could work best. However, intricate frames, such as a swept frame, offer a level of luxury and grandeur.
For some, a theme will be incredibly important for their home. Whether you’ve recently renovated your space and want the wall to continue the trend, or are just looking for a way to tie in all of the things that you love together, a theme can be the ideal way to work through this. This can be as prominent as each picture including the same object or as loose as a colour scheme using different shades of the same colour. With this in mind, selecting the required theme and planning the range of images early in the process is crucial.
When it comes to actually hanging the images, there are many ways in which you can approach this. The more traditional means of attaching images involves nails, but items such as command strips also work well. These prevent damage from the wall and also allow you to quickly rearrange your chosen artwork as and when you please, which can be great fun! Additionally, it may be beneficial to have someone stand a couple of feet back from your staircase throughout the process. This means that if something doesn’t look quite right, or if something is slightly out of alignment, you can receive feedback throughout the process which makes it an easier job!
