One of the best ways to personalize a space—whether it’s your home, office, or dorm room—is with a gallery wall. This one, from my daughter’s college dorm, combines artwork she found online with photos with framed mementos (including a champagne cork from a cast party alongside a photo of that night, and another of our dog, Groot’s pawprint). She even “borrowed” a piece of art from our apartment—a custom portrait of Groot by a local artist—to make the room feel more like home.
You’ll find plenty of tips on how to plan and hang a gallery wall in this post. Here, I want to focus on what to hang, both in regular frames and, for three-dimensional objects like a cork or the plaster pawprint, deeper shadow box frames (which I like to call “scrapboxes”).
Daisy’s gallery wall highlighted the places and people she loves. It was a combination of art (I was shocked by what great things she found online—and at really affordable prices!), photos, and DIY memento frames.
Framed Artwork
The art you buy can reflect not just your taste your personal history. Consider the following categories
• A nod to your hometown–like this print from the New Yorker magazine
• A pet portrait. Daisy took this portrait of our dog Groot which I had commissioned for our home. I’m not trying to encourage your kids to leave you with blank spaces on your wall, but that’s one way to do it.
• Places you’ve visited—or would love to travel to someday. Daisy found this ski image of Zermatt, Switzerland on Etsy, and this print of the Amalfi coast on Desenio.
• Abstract artwork. Desenio is also where she sourced this abstract print.
• Original artwork by someone you love. For a gallery wall in your office, you might frame a drawing one of your kids made. My daughter flipped that script for her college dorm by framing my own illustration of a bouquet.
The wide range of images work together because the frames are in a unified color palette of white and wood.
Framed Photos
Think outside the 4″x6″, 5″x7″ and 8″x10″ boxes! Those are the sizes frames tend to come in, but you can fill that space any way you want. Consider:
• Lining up a grid of instant photos
• Grouping several photo strips (from photo booths, arcades, wherever!) in one large frame
• Or, slice up a strip and use two of the four images to fill a small frame. Your bestie can frame the bottom two for their gallery wall.
Keep the frame colors and shapes consistent for unity, but feel free to play around with the backdrop of the frame, lining it in dark paper or fabric. For how-to info, click here.
DIY Memento Frames
You can’t always bring your pet to college, but you can bring their pawprint. We used a 3D Plaster pawprint kit to preserve Groot’s pawprint, then framed it in a shadowbox. Here’s the full how-to.
Pawprint Box
You can’t always bring your pet to college, but you can bring their pawprint. We used a 3D Plaster pawprint kit to preserve Groot’s pawprint, then framed it in a shadowbox. Here’s the full how-to.
Shell Scrapbox
Bring the summer sun to a winter’s afternoon with this framed memento of a day on the shore. We attached shells to the back of a shadowbox using glue dots (but a gluegun would work too) for that eternal summer vibe.
Celebratory Cork
Daisy framed a cork from her senior year cast party against an image of that year’s show. You could do the same with your wedding invitation, an engagement picture, a birthday party—any celebratory occasion you want to remember each time you see the frame.
