Gallery walls that don't look like a corkboard

A gallery wall looks like the easiest upgrade in the house — right up until you're standing in front of a blank wall with a hammer, unsure where to start. The gap between "this looks expensive" and "this looks like an office corkboard" comes down to two or three decisions.

Unify the frames, vary the contents

Fastest route to a professional result: one frame style in two or three sizes, with wildly varied contents. Photos, prints, a piece of fabric, even an empty mat. Mix both frames and contents and the eye has nothing to anchor on, so the wall reads as clutter.

Spacing is the whole trick

Keep 5–7 cm between frames. Consistently, on every side. Wider and the composition falls apart into separate pictures; tighter and it blurs into one dark smudge. The centre of the whole arrangement belongs at eye level — roughly 145–150 cm from the floor — not centred on the blank wall, which is where most people instinctively hang.

Paper first, hammer second

Trace each frame onto kraft paper, cut it out, and tape the shapes to the wall. Rearrange three times. Five if you need to. Only then drill, straight through the paper so it holds the hook position for you. That single habit saves you a wall full of test holes.

Want to see the result before the drill comes out? RoomFlip renders layout options straight from a photo of your room, so you choose the composition on your phone instead of on the plaster. And if you're prepping prints yourself, FileTools converts and resizes files for print without installing anything.

Start with five frames. A gallery wall is always better grown over time than dumped on the wall in one afternoon.