My Favorite Way to Hang a Gallery Wall | Utah Family Photographer

I have been wanting a gallery wall for about as long as I have had kiddos. I love the idea of my very favorite pictures of my very favorite people being the main focus of my home. So, when I saw an example of this kind of gallery wall on Pinterest I was sold! It completely fits my personality and aesthetic with its organized and neat look.

I had seen different examples of hanging gallery walls on Pinterest, but they each seemed to use the same method which kind of seemed daunting to me. In each example they would trace the frame onto brown paper and cut it out. Then they would tape the papers onto the wall to figure out the placement and then nail through the paper. It is definitely simpler than just winging it, but in the case of a gallery wall like mine (where spacing between has to be so exact) it didn't seem like the best way. The last thing I wanted was to have to sit and measure between all of the edges of my papers over and over and over again.

So I came up with an alternative that was SO simple I just had to share. I raided my Christmas storage bin and found a brand new roll of wrapping paper that had a grid on the back of the print.

I laid my frames on the back of the grid and used the grid to help me with spacing between each square. I traced my frames into a grid that was 1 across and 4 down. Using the grid was SO easy. All I had to do was count the same number of squares between each frame.

(I forgot to photograph this stage so here is an example from a different gallery wall that hangs above my piano. Same thing. Lay out the frames how you want them on the grid and trace them)

Then I did the same thing again. Now I had two strips that were 1x4.

Using the grid again, I figured out how many squares across and how many squares of the grid down my nail hole was and marked it on each frame outline.

I found the center of my outline and lined it up with the center of my wall. I taped it into place and stepped back to try to decide if it was high enough on my wall. Once I found a height that I liked, I used a level to make sure that my wrapping paper strip was level on my wall.

Then I got my second strip and lined up my grids on the wrapping paper and taped it alongside what was my center strip. After leveling my second strip of paper, I nailed through the wrapping paper where I had marked the nail holes previously.

Then I carefully removed the right strip of wrapping paper and moved it to the left side of my center strip and redid the whole process.

When I took down the paper, I had 12 nails that were perfectly lined up and level with each other just waiting for my frames!

When my prints came in the mail, I laid them out in a grid on my bed to make sure that I liked the positioning of each picture and then I put them in. I love so much how it turned out. It really wasn't that much work and the overall effect is exactly what I was hoping for. I just love having those sweet little faces as the main focus of my living room!