The easiest way to make a gallery wall

I have been wanting to make a gallery wall for a long time now.  I truly believe in surrounding my family with pictures of us.  Pictures of us happy together.  Pics of them looking lovely.  I think it is important.  But I have been a little intimidated with this whole gallery wall thing.

We recently got our family pictures done and I LOVE them!  So I wanted to use them for this picture wall.  I was really intimidated however and didn’t know how to start.  I knew I needed to print some photos.  But I couldn’t just jump in and do that.  I didn’t know how many photos I needed or what sizes to print.  I didn’t want to get them all printed and then the gallery wall placement was off.  I definitely didn’t want to end up saying  if only I had one more 8 x 10.

Since we had just gotten cute family photos done,  I decided I couldn’t put it off any longer.  So I turned to photoshop.  You could easily do this in any editing program that can make squares.

I opened a blank document and started making squares to represent the photos.

 

I made a square that I thought looked kinda like an 8 x 10.  Assuming the white background was my wall.  I didn’t worry about exact sizes at all.  Just made squares.  Some of them I made landscape and some portrait.  I said ok, if that square represents an 8×10 then an 11 x14 would be a little bit bigger and a 16 x 20 would be even bigger.  So I made larger squares.  Then I just arranged them until I got a layout I liked.  If I wanted to change sizes, I erased a part off one of the squares or made a square bigger. Once I had what I liked, I knew I needed 5  pictures sized to 8 x 10 {3 portrait and 2 landscape}.  2 pictures 11 x 14 landscape and 1 picture 16 x 20 portrait.  Then it was just a matter of picking which pictures I wanted to print.  Easier said than done.My favorite place to print pictures is Costco.  They do a great job and are very affordable.  If you have them shipped you don’t even need to have a membership.Now I have my pictures and I know exactly how I want to hang them.I used a little trick to get them on the walls without a million holes.I put a screw into the back of the picture frame.  Right into the hanging tab.  Then I went to the wall and lined up the photo where it needed to go.  The end of the screw touching the wall.  I tapped lightly and it made a mark on the wall.  This was exactly where the screw needed to be placed on the wall.  There you have it, one hole and the picture is perfectly in place.I love my new gallery wall.  Something about bare walls feels just moved in.  I’m so happy I decided to just do this for my home.  Now I want to do another one in the front room but the whole wall.  I’ll let you know how it goes. 

Connect with me: