5 Tips to Hang a Grid Gallery Wall

Katherine
by Katherine
4 Materials
$10
1 Hour
Medium

Read these 5 tips before you tackle a grid gallery wall to help make your alignment perfect and avoid putting extra holes in the wall!

Hanging a perfectly aligned grid gallery wall is tricky…REALLY tricky! The tops, bottoms, and side of each artwork have to be level and in line with each other or the symmetry just doesn’t work.


If you’ve been following along in my Instagram stories, you watched me bustle about and hang my camellia engravings in the living room using a three over three grid layout. It may seem like I did a lot of extra measuring and double or triple checking with the level, but guess what? I didn’t have a single hanging hook out of place!


This is one of those DIY projects where precision and careful measuring count. But don’t worry, I’ve got 5 tips to help you get a perfectly aligned grid gallery wall.


Now if you’ve got a laser level, it is definitely worth setting it up to use. But if that’s not something in your tool box, I hung my grid with just a measuring tape and regular level, and you can too!


5 Tips to Hang a Grid Gallery Wall

Tip 1 Sketch a Layout

Even if you already know how you want your grid to be arranged, create a layout schematic with dimensions. Your drawing doesn’t have to be to scale, but it will help you account for spacing and the total height and width of your grid.


It is important to decide before you start what your spacing in between the works of art and between the rows will be. I did 2 inches for both.


The schematic helps you figure out the total length and height of your grid area, which is important for tip 2.


Tip 2 Find the Center of the Grid Area

Once you identify the area for your grid on the wall, find the center of this space. Use painter’s tape to mark the center horizontally and vertically. This is important for both an odd number grouping and an even number grouping of art. Either the center art work will hang here or it will be the center line in between two works of art.


Tip 3 Hang From the Center Out and the Bottom Up

In general, you are probably centering your grid gallery over a piece of furniture or on a wall, so it’s important the center art work in the gallery be right. With that in mind, work from the center outward, meaning hang the first work at the center point you identified and hang the rest of the works based off that one.


I also find it easier to work bottom up, so I hung the first print in the center bottom row. Then I figured the distance between that hook and the hook of the print above. Don’t forget to account for the spacing in between.


Tip 4 Account for the Drop of Hanging Wire & Hook

When using hanging wire and picture hooks, there is usually a difference between the top of the frame and the wire and the nail and the hook. My frames had 4 inches between the top of the wire and the top of the frame which means my nail had to go in to the wall 4 inches below where I wanted the top of the frame to hit. Because I used picture hooks, I also had to account for the drop here, which is usually about an inch.


Tip 5 Use Tacky Putty to Keep Frames Level

Once my hooks were all nailed in to the wall and my botanical prints hung, I went back with my measuring tape and some tacky putty to make sure each frame was level and even with the ones beside it. To use the tacky putty I rolled it in a good size ball and stuck it on the back of the bottom of the frame in the center. Once the frame was level, I gently pressed down in the center bottom of the frame to secure.

I’m just thrilled with how my botanical gallery wall turned out in my living room. You can see more of it in this post where I also talk about matting and framing prints. I also have two antique camellia engravings from this series available in the curio shop: a bold red one and a gorgeous hot pink one.


I hope this post helped prepare you to tackle your own grid gallery wall. Just remember to measure twice and check your alignment with a level!

Resources for this project:
See all materials
Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
Hometalk may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.More info
Katherine
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Go
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Comments
Join the conversation
 1 comment
  • Teresa Teresa on Jul 13, 2022

    Those came out perfect. And I love the two chairs in front of them. Classic.

Next