One of the most creative ways to decorate a room in your home is to create a focal wall. You can do this by painting one wall a fun color, but when you live in a rental property this option is often off the table. A great way to create a focal wall that is custom to your personal style is to make a gallery wall. Buying framed pieces of art can be really expensive, so here are some tips and tricks to create a cheap DIY gallery wall.
Painting a Canvas
Making your own art to go onto your DIY gallery wall is way to get creative. I like to find inspiration on TikTok for easy to make art pieces. Canvases are super cheap and you can get a starter kit of paint or markers for cheap.
Prints
Buying pieces of art can be expensive, but purchasing prints is a cheaper alternative. Websites like Society6 offer thousands of prints in various sizes that are relatively cheap. If you aren't picky you can hang up the prints like so, or purchase frames from IKEA for super cheap to create more of an expensive look.
Pinterest is everyone's best friend when it comes to inspiration. Start making a digital vision board of what your DIY gallery wall will incorporate. This is a great way to design it all before starting so you know exactly what you need to purchase and put together. Also, this is a great reference to find quotes or sayings that you can easily paint or doodle onto a canvas.
Use Old Photos
In everyone's house there is a box of old photographs from vacations or family outings, so use those. You can get photos enlarged or made into whatever dimensions you want at Walgreens or any drug store that develops photos for super cheap. This is also a great way to make the gallery wall more personal to you.
Mix Sizes
Another key to a successful DIY gallery wall is to create variety. Make some items big and small, with a variety of sizes in between. A tip with this is to stick to a certain maximum and minimum size, making sure they aren't that far apart.
Command Hooks
We have all used thumbtacks at one point to hang up posters in our rooms, but that phase needs to be put to an end. Command hooks are a bit more expensive that just using nails, but they are so much easier. Plus, if you live in an apartment where you aren't allowed to wreck the walls, these are great. They come right off, are easy to move around, and come in all shapes and sizes perfect for various pieces in a DIY gallery wall.
A huge trick when creating a gallery wall is to lay it all out on the floor like you would want it on the wall before you start hanging anything up. Make sure you have the layout perfected before installation. Also, stick to a color scheme. You want a variety of photos, textures, and quotes but make sure they all stick to a mutual color palette as to not feel too busy in your space.
For the scoop on more DIYs, click here!
Steve says
I like gallery walls very much and I must want to try this out.
Cheers!