Making a Statement with a Photo Wall Display

A photo or art gallery wall is an excellent way to make a statement. Much more so if the photos or artwork you are displaying are your or your loved one’s own. Your portraits, your children’s artwork, landscape photography you took, your sketches or artwork in your collection will tell the viewer a lot about you and your personality.

What’s more, doing this can be fun! There are a lot of ways to mix colors, textures, patterns and displaying them on your wall with the use of picture frames. Here are some ideas you can consider:

• Black and whites on black. Black and white photos can be very classy and modern looking. You can take a series of black and white photos and place them on plain, black picture frames of the same sizes. Then, you can hang these frames on a simple grid style. For added visual impact, you can use white weighted matting, where the matting’s width is even on the top and sides and wider at the bottom. When creating a simple grid such as a 3x3 “nine-square” grid, make sure that the space between the frames are the same.
• Have a focal point. This focal point will serve as an “anchor” for the rest of the display. It usually is the largest picture frame or the one that is the most colorful. This focal point can be at the center or at one corner of the display. However, this focal point should be placed at the viewer’s eye level.
• Create balance. When laying out the frames, take note of balance in the display. There should be something aligned or symmetric with the display, something that unifies them so that the overall look appears clean and put together. If there is no balance, the display can feel disproportionate and grating. For instance, even if you use differently-sized rectangular picture frames, you can have a central line where the bottoms of the first row of frames and the tops of the second row of frames are aligned with each other. For color and texture, you can play up with different materials and colors, just as long as you keep it within your chosen color palette so that there is still balance with the look.
• Add other decorative elements. Aside from photos or artwork, you can add visual interest with other elements – mirrors, colored monogram letters, ribbons, clocks or signs.
• Choose your frames depending on the mood you want to set. If you want to have a formal and traditional look, make use of vintage picture frames that have the same molding design or the exact same shade. For a more eclectic and relaxed look, you can use different frames and designs just as long as there is a unifying factor to them.
• Consider having rows of picture ledges. Rather than having to hang your picture frames on the wall, you can also install picture frame ledges in several rows, so as to be able to accommodate more picture frames. Just make sure that for at least one of the ledges, the space available is large enough to house the largest picture frame. If you plan to use round or oval picture frames, add stickers with a thin rubber or cork surface to ensure that the frames stay in place when these are placed in the ledges.