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Easiest Way to Hang a Level Gallery Wall

May 31, 2016 | 23 Comments

Easy Botanical Fern Gallery Wall How To

When I was planning our latest guest room transformation (you can see the full reveal HERE), I wanted the art above the bed to be simple, neutral, and budget friendly. I have also been considering where in my house I could hang a botanical gallery wall after falling in love with the dining room art in Alicia Florrick’s home in The Good Wife.

After searching online for free botanical images, I decided on the fern prints I found on The Painted Hive. Once I downloaded them, I toned down the green a bit. I love the vibrant color but thought it would be best in a muted tone for this bedroom. Printed on regular lightweight copy paper, I went to Michaels while they had frames on sale and scored 10 11×14 frames for just over $50. Now that is some affordable art I can get on board with when working on a budget! Although I found my frames locally, you can have some similar options delivered to you HERE.

So now you know the what, where, and why of my botanical gallery, we can move on to the how. I always look for the simplest way to get from Point A to Point B. I have said before I am a bit DIY lazy and if I can get away without measurements, levels, etc., I will. Because this gallery uses the same sized frames, it made the hanging and planning process even easier. Below, I will show you how I hung the entire gallery wall of 10 frames in about 20 minutes.

Step One- Gallery Wall

Since it is thin and already has 90 degree angles, I used copy paper to form my template for each frame. Using four pieces, I lined up each paper corner with the corner of the frame, overlapping each. Once the paper was straight and in the shape of the frame, I used a few pieces of tape to make it form one sheet that was the same size as my frame.

Easy way to hang a gallery wall tutorial

Slide4

Because the paper is thin, I could faintly see where the top of the hook fell on my paper. With the template still directly on top of the frame back, I took a thumbtack and made a small hole where the frame would hang from a nail. I repeated this for each of the frames until I had 10 templates with small thumbtack holes.

How to hang an even gallery wall

Slide5

Starting in the center on the bottom row, I used a small piece of tape to secure your paper to the wall. The space between each is very easy to eye; while you can use a tape measure and level, I opted to take the easy way out and just eye it – it worked out great.

Easy Way to Hang a Gallery Wall Above Bed

Slide6

Once the rows were set and each template was spread apart evenly, I tapped my nail into the wall, through the paper, where your small thumbtack hole is. Once each of the nails was tapped into the drywall, I literally just pulled the paper down to rip it off.

Easy Gallery Wall Hanging Tutorial

Slide7

Lastly, I hung each frame to complete the gallery wall. That’s it!

Fern Prints Above Bed How to Hang a Gallery Wall

If I am hanging a large piece of art with multiple hooks, I am more likely to use formal measuring tools. But, for these 11×14 frames with one hook, the template method while eyeing the spacing works fabulously.

Botanical Art Gallery Wall Above Tufted Bed

If you use this method on your own wall, check back in and let me know how it turns out!

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Filed Under: Guest Bedroom, Home Decor, Tips & Ideas, Uncategorized | Tagged With: gallery wall, Guest Bedroom, Home Decor, interior design, interior styling

Comments

  1. Joni King says

    May 31, 2016 at 9:10 am

    What a great way to hang a gallery of pictures! You are awesome Kelley Nan, and so very helpful!

    Love, love, love this room!

    Hugs – Joni

    Reply
    • Kelley Nan says

      May 31, 2016 at 9:33 am

      Joni, thank you!! You are the best. Thank you for always checking in with me 😉

      Reply
  2. Shelley @ Calypso in the Country says

    May 31, 2016 at 10:00 am

    Great tips! I love seeing this room again! Definitely one of my favorites!
    Enjoy your week!
    Shelley

    Reply
    • Kelley Nan says

      May 31, 2016 at 11:15 am

      Shelley, thank you so much!! Have a wonderful week.

      Reply
  3. Jessica says

    May 31, 2016 at 1:23 pm

    This is my favorite way to do this! But I never thought about taping paper together!! So easy…

    Reply
    • Kelley Nan says

      May 31, 2016 at 2:50 pm

      It so is! Try it next time 😉

      Reply
  4. Ileana Morgado says

    May 31, 2016 at 8:06 pm

    I love this method to hang frames so easy. Can you please do a post about rugs and what sizes do you recommend for each room?

    Reply
    • Kelley Nan says

      June 1, 2016 at 8:24 am

      Thank you! And I should totally do that! Thank you for the suggestion!

      Reply
  5. Bree says

    June 1, 2016 at 11:20 pm

    Kelley! This is brilliant!! Thanks for sharing, dear:)

    Reply
    • Kelley Nan says

      June 2, 2016 at 10:38 am

      Bree, thank you!! xo

      Reply
  6. Gretchen Thomas says

    June 11, 2016 at 10:18 pm

    Gosh…so many can learn from this! What a beautiful and “teaching” post!

    Reply
    • Kelley Nan says

      June 12, 2016 at 4:08 pm

      Thank you! I am so glad it was helpful – it makes things so much easier!

      Reply
  7. Angela WV says

    October 25, 2016 at 10:24 pm

    Room is lovely! Love your style.
    How were you able to change the color of the prints. I find the background too antiqued, but I only have the option of saving as a pdf file.
    Thanks!

    Reply
    • Kelley Nan says

      October 26, 2016 at 11:49 am

      Angela, thank you! I modified them a little by saving them as the pdf, re-saving them as a jpeg from the pdf, and then editing the coloring a little in PicMonkey.

      Reply
      • Angela WV says

        October 26, 2016 at 10:25 pm

        Thank you for your quick response! I really appreciate it!
        have a great evening,
        angela

        Reply
  8. Linh says

    January 28, 2018 at 5:29 pm

    I just used your method and it worked nicely!

    Reply
  9. Kristin says

    July 22, 2019 at 8:21 am

    This worked perfectly! I actually only made one paper template and worked off of that. I also used the width of my long level for spacing (2.25”) and that really helped things move quickly and minimized measuring even more. Thanks for the quick and easy tip, you saved my walls from a million holes!

    Reply
    • Kelley Nan says

      August 13, 2019 at 9:08 am

      Kristin, that’s awesome! Thank you for sharing!

      Reply
  10. Emme says

    December 20, 2020 at 2:50 pm

    Thanks for the idea! With the 11×14 frames I found it hard to tape all the pieces together. The frames I found had cardboard packaging, so I used the cardboard instead but utilized your method. It worked out perfectly!!

    Thank you for the help and for the inspiration!

    Reply
    • Kelley Nan says

      December 21, 2020 at 1:46 pm

      Hi Emme, Thank you for stopping by and for taking the time to leave a note. I am so glad you developed a method that worked for you!

      Reply

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