As long as we love custom framed art, we’ll love a good gallery wall—and we’re always looking for interesting new takes on themes, arrangements, and proportions of this age-old tactic for displaying your most prized pieces. Here are six emerging gallery wall trends we’ve spotted that are sure to give your space a refresh for spring and beyond.
1. Travel photo gallery walls.
In the age of smartphone addiction, we’re all trying to find ways to disconnect—and nothing does the trick quite like a quick getaway. That urge combined with increased accessibility means that travel is more popular than ever.
To keep the vacation vibes going long after the tan lines have faded, many are turning to their walls—and gallery walls dedicated to personal travel photos are having a moment. Scroll for inspiration—and if you like what you see, use our Print & Frame service to easily create a travel photo gallery wall of your own.
This group of images (all in our signature White Gallery Frame) from our Pro partner Denise Crew is giving us a serious case of wanderlust.
We love how Angela Elias of POPSUGAR played with size and dimension when creating this gallery wall in her own home, using a handful of personal travel photos framed in our Gallery Frames in Light Walnut, White, and Black, as well as a small Antique Silver Certificate Frame.
An inspirational shot showing how a travel gallery wall is done, from the archives of Style Me Pretty, photographed by Audra Wrisley.
2. Wrap-around gallery walls.
Say you’ve finally finished building the gallery wall of your dreams—but you keep finding more art that you have to have. What to do? Keep building!
We love the luxe, over-the-top look of a floor-to-ceiling wrap-around gallery wall that covers two adjoining walls with beautiful custom framed art. It’s a great way to visually anchor a space, while also finding a home for all your favorite pieces. (Because nothing’s more tragic than gorgeous, custom framed art with nowhere to go, right?)
One of our sweetest projects to date is this glorious wrap-around gallery wall (featuring a supersized portion of our custom frames) at the Wrigleyville location of Jeni’s Ice Creams.
Love the maximalism shown in this inspirational image from Tamara Lee on Instagram.
Of course, an art exhibition is a great place to find inspiration for hanging art! This wrap-around gallery wall is from the Uprise Art booth at Art on Paper, featuring works by Kristin Texeira in our White Gallery Frames.
3. Gallery walls in small spaces.
For too long, we believed that gallery walls could only live on large, uninterrupted surfaces. The truth is, nearly any space can be home to a stunning gallery wall. Art can be hung between windows and doorways, around a television set, and even on exposed beams. It all depends on the scale of the art, the room, and your personal style.
Here are some great examples of gallery walls in small, odd-shaped spaces:
We love the way this grid of small abstract works by The Fourth Artist perfectly fills the space above this fireplace. Styling and photo by Emily Henderson.
The aforementioned exposed beam gallery wall! Click here to learn all about how we custom framed these colorful Hattie Stewart prints for Sarah and Reed Weily’s beautiful home in our Metal Gallery Frames in Bright White.
How to turn that weird space under your stairway into something amazing, via @marycasachic on Instagram.
4. Nature-inspired gallery walls.
We’ve all heard of “bringing the outdoors in” when it comes to interior design, but we may think it immediately translates to an indoor-outdoor floor plan or an abundance of house plants. But what about art?
Blame it on the warmer weather, but we’re seeing a rise in nature-inspired gallery walls. Vintage botanical posters, landscape photography, preserved flowers and insects, and even wall-mounted planters add dimension and interest to your collection while maintaining a cohesive theme—and, yes, bringing the outdoors in.
An eclectic gallery wall by our Pro partner Kelly Christine Sutton that features one of her prints in our White Gallery Frame.
A gorgeous collection of nature-inspired photos by Hamish Robertson (on an appropriately green backdrop) in the Silver Lake location of Lawson-Fenning framed in our White and Black Gallery Frames.
5. Library gallery walls.
While some gallery walls celebrate the great outdoors, others pay homage to one of our favorite indoor activities: curling up with a good book. And while the half-bookcase, half-gallery wall trend has been around for a while, we’re starting to see something new: the two combined as layers.
Minimalists may want to avert their eyes, as this trend is not for the “less is more” crowd. But if you have a lot of books and a lot of art in your home, and are looking for a fresh, fun way to display the two, keep scrolling.
Photo by Cody Guilfoyle for Domino Magazine, with styling by Elaina Sullivan.
The home of celebrity chef Alex Hitz, photographed by Lisa Romerein for House Beautiful.
A cleaner (but equally captivating) take on the library gallery wall, featuring art by Adam Lister in our White Gallery Frame, in the home of our Simply Framed Founder Dara Segal.
6. A bold backdrop.
If you’d prefer to gently ease yourself into opulent maximalism, try this: a gallery wall on a bold backdrop, like a brightly painted wall or patterned wallpaper. Yes, it does add an extra step and factor to consider when creating the perfect gallery wall—but, when done right, the result is absolutely worth it.
A bold blue backdrop in Orlando Soria’s home featuring Simply Framed frames. Photo by Zeke Ruelas.
The coolest fall decor inspo, courtesy of Keri Oldham’s solo show, Night Fortress, at Kirk Hopper Fine Art. Keri’s art is floated in our Natural Gallery Frames.
Photo and design by Erin Wheeler of Sunny Circle Studio. We’re obsessed with the way the pattern on the wallpaper imitates the art itself.
Whether you’re inspired by one of these ideas or have something else in mind, we can help you create your own dream gallery wall. Get started today at simplyframed.com.
