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Creating a coordinated gallery wall

No.. it’s not time to deck the halls.  Although I could totally go for a little Christmas decor right now.. and always.  ;)  Today I’m sharing my Summer gallery wall along with a few tips for how you can create your own coordinated gallery wall.  The last time I shared the gallery wall in my formal living room it looked like this…

Lots of red and green and full of Christmas cheer.  I have to be honest and admit that this gallery wall stayed with lots of red and green and full of Christmas cheer well past Christmas.  Maybe even well past St. Patricks Day.. {sigh}.  Life!  It has a way of getting in the way of well planned projects, doesn’t it!?  But finally one Spring day I got to work switching out the pictures and this is how my coordinated gallery wall looks today…

Traded in the red and green for pinks and blues and navy and green and all things Spring and Summer!  Love this time of year too. :)  Putting together a gallery wall full of pictures that coordinate and work together is no small task!  I’m starting to figure out a process that works for me so I thought I’d share it in case any of you have struggled with something similar.

I knew for this gallery wall I wanted to be able to always use colorful family pictures.  That’s why I chose to use the same frames in different sizes.  Because the frames are cohesive, the pictures can all be different and it still works.  (I found my reclaimed wooden frames at a local store on the coast, but these frames are very similar.)

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My first step is to always pick one or two pictures that I love and definitely want to use.  For this season it was our most recent family picture and the picture of my three kids.  They took up the two large horizontal frames and gave me my new color scheme.  I actually put these two pictures in and then the rest of the frames sat empty for a few weeks until I had time to find other pictures that worked.  No shame in taking your time with house projects!  Clearly that’s the underlying motto around here. ;)

Now I knew the colors I wanted to use so I started looking through old pictures to find 3 things: pictures that included similar colors to my original pictures, pictures that screamed Spring and Summer, and pictures that bring me joy.  This picture of my girls in their past Easter dresses was perfect!  And while the color navy isn’t in my original two pictures, I have a lot of navy in my living room so it worked.

So I had a picture of my girls.. now I just needed one of my little buddy.  Hmmm.. a picture of Kole that screams Summer?  That one was an easy, obvious choice and one of my all time favorite pictures.  Such a cool little dude.  Even at 2 months old. ;)

For this last large vertical picture I had several options, but kept coming back to this picture of me and my girls.  It’s not a favorite picture of me (at all), but I will always remember this day.  We were at the Cove (one of our favorite hang outs) watching the seals, playing tag on the grass, wading in the ocean, just spending time together as a family.  I clearly remember feeling so full of gratitude for my two little girls that day.  For some reason this day always stands out in my mind.  It does for my husband too and he has always loved this picture.  Bonus that our clothes are pink, blue and green.  Fits all criteria! :)

I then had three small frames left to fill so I knew I wanted one of each of my three kids.  I just went through pictures and found a few that were taken during the Summer that brought back fun memories.  El with her dad at the beach.

Ad in a favorite swimsuit.

And my little frog.  I loved bathing my babies and this picture takes me right back to those days. :)

I ended up pulling in more of the color green than I planned but I love it!  A great color for this time of year.

For the random object/frame/whatever I can find to put at the top I really wanted something in a circle or a different shape to break up all of the rectangle frames, but I couldn’t find anything that looked right.  This hello Spring sign I had bought at Target for Ad’s room but decided to try it here and the colors were perfect.  I’m still on the hunt for something that fits the space a little better, but it will do until then!

So to recap a few tips for creating a gallery wall that works:  

1 – Choose a picture or two to start with that you love.  These original pictures (and the colors in the room) set the color scheme for your gallery wall.

2 – Look for pictures/objects that have similar colors, fit in with the season (if you are decorating seasonally) and that bring you joy.

3 – Face end pictures inward.  You’ll notice that the large picture of Kole is on the far right so that he is facing in towards my gallery wall.  The large picture of the girls in navy dresses is on the far left so they are also looking inward.  For some reason this always looks better than if people in the pictures are looking out away from the gallery wall.  That takes your eyes away from the pictures.  Just a little observation I’ve made!  We are looking straight ahead in the picture of me and the girls together so that one went in the middle.


So nice to have this coordinated gallery wall updated for Summer!  Now we can focus on making more memories for next year’s wall.

:)

*You can find more pics of my living room and all sources in this post.

xoxo, Erin
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20 thoughts on “Creating a coordinated gallery wall

  1. The wall looks great!! Love all those special pictures that bring back wonderful memories. Thanks for the tips! You have a beautiful family, Erin. xxoo

  2. Erin, it looks fantastic. I love the idea of keeping the same frames/arrangement and then just changing out the pictures. Even though our girls are grown, I love having lots of pics of them around. This would be such a fun way of remembering all those good times we had while they were growing up (and maybe embarrassing them a bit too).
    And, OMG…I remember some of those older photos from when yours were little. Time really has flown by.

    1. Hasn’t time just flown by Lauren!? I remember taking a lot of those pictures like it was yesterday! You should definitely display some of your cute girls when they were little! Pictures like that take you right back. :) Thanks cutie! So happy you like it! xo

  3. Looks wonderful, Erin. You’ve got some super fun photos to show off. Thanks for sharing your tips on how to make it eye catching. :) Hugs!

  4. I love the dedicated gallery wall! I have a question about the pictures though. Do you print these off specifically for these arrangements? And what will you do with them when you rotate them out? Will you save them/recycle them? Photo storage/organization is a priority and a head-scratcher for me.

    Thanks!

    1. I have a similar gallery wall that I change the pictures on. I usually just store the prints in the frames. I haven’t reached the point where I have too many to fit but I don’t change them that often. That way if I want to reuse a picture it is right there. I’m curious to know what Erin does though!

      1. Jen I am doing the exact same thing! My Christmas pictures are still in the frames behind the new pictures and will be ready to go next November. :)

    2. Thank you so much Michelle! I’m so happy you like the gallery wall! I did print these specifically for this gallery wall. When I changed the Christmas pictures I just left those in the frames behind the new pictures! I plan on using these same pictures each year. At some point I may update one or two of them and then the pictures I’m not using anymore I’ll save with other random large pictures I have in a drawer in my office. Photo storage and organization is something I’m constantly trying to figure out too! I’ve done so many different things in the past and I’ve been working on a current solution. I’ll write a post on what I’m doing at some point! xo

  5. Love this idea! Gallery walls always screamed clutter to me, but making the pictures coordinate really makes it work. It seems like one big piece, instead of a ton of different random pieces.
    And tip #3 is great! You’re right it really does move your eye.

    1. I agree Kristen! Coordinating frames and/or colors really helps reduce the clutter look! Thank you! I’m so glad you like it! :) xo

  6. Love this Erin! Looks so good! And I totally remember and love all those older pics of your kids too. Funny how even just seeing you post them back then they stood out to me to. Especially froggy Kole, love that!

    1. Thank you Josie! Kole was my little frog like two minutes ago! I can’t believe how big our kids are getting. We will be planning weddings before we know it! Yikes. Miss you guys! xo

  7. Your wall looks great and the tips you provide are wonderful! One question – can you remove the Hello Spring from it’s current frame cut it/put it in a round one? Just a thought . . . :)

  8. LOVE this wall!!! What size are your large frames and what size are the really small ones? Just trying to do my wall and can’t figure out what range of frame sizes to use.

    Thanks!!!

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