How do I lay out a gallery wall so it looks deliberate?

Setting the whole group from the eye line, keeping the gaps equal, sizing the arrangement to the furniture below, and the paper-template method that avoids a wall full of holes.

Difficulty: beginner
Time: 2 hr
Read: 5 min

Short answer

Treat the whole group as one imaginary rectangle and put its centre on the eye line at 1450 to 1500mm above the floor. Keep every gap between frames equal at 50 to 80mm, keep the group between two thirds and the full width of the furniture below it, and lay the whole thing out on the floor first, then transfer it with paper templates before a single hole is drilled.

A gallery wall reads as deliberate or accidental, and the difference is not taste — it is two measurements. The arrangement has a centre, and that centre belongs on the eye line. The frames have gaps, and those gaps should all be the same. Everything else, including the mix of sizes and subjects, can be as loose as you like once those two things are right.

What you'll need

Tape measure and a pencil
Long spirit level
Newspaper or lining paper, and masking tape
Cable and pipe detector
Hooks and fixings matched to the wall and the weights
Adhesive putty, for positioning templates (optional)

Hanging height and gallery-wall spacing, set out from the eye line

Step by step

Lay the whole arrangement out on the floor first.Clear a floor area the size of the wall space and move the frames around until it works. Photograph the result. Doing this on the wall means holes for every decision you change your mind about.
Find the eye line and mark it lightly.1450 to 1500mm from the floor, marked in pencil across the wall. This is gallery convention and it is also simply where people's eyes are. Most domestic pictures are hung well above it because people hang to their own standing eye level.
Treat the whole group as one rectangle.Draw an imaginary boundary around the entire arrangement. Its centre — not the centre of any one frame — goes on the eye line. This is the rule that makes mixed sizes look intentional.
Make every gap the same.50 to 80mm between frames, and the same figure everywhere. Wider gaps break the group into separate pictures; uneven gaps read as a mistake. Cut a spacer block to the chosen gap and use it rather than measuring each one.
Size the group to the furniture beneath it.Two thirds to the full width of the sofa, sideboard or bed below, and never wider. Leave 150 to 250mm between the top of the furniture and the bottom of the lowest frame so the two read as one composition.
Cut paper templates and tape them up.Newspaper or lining paper cut to each frame size, with the hook position marked on each. Tape them to the wall with masking tape and live with it for a day. Moving paper is free.
Measure the wire drop on every frame.Hang the frame's wire or cord from a finger so it is taut, and measure from the top of the frame down to the highest point of the wire. That is the number you subtract from the desired frame-top height to find where the hook goes. Forgetting it is the commonest reason a picture ends up several centimetres high.
Mark hook positions through the templates.Push a pencil or a bradawl through the marked point on each template. The mark ends up exactly where the hook goes, and you never measured on the wall at all.
Scan before drilling, and choose fixings by weight.Cables run vertically and horizontally from every socket and switch. Then match the fixing to the frame: a pin-type picture hook holds a few kilograms in plaster, a heavier frame or anything glazed and large needs a proper wall fixing, and anything over about 10kg needs two hooks and a stud or masonry.
Hang from the middle outwards.Start with the largest or most central frame and work out from it. Errors then spread evenly rather than accumulating at one end.

Tips

Hang in a grid if the frames are all the same size, and asymmetrically if they are not. A near-grid with slightly wrong alignments is the one arrangement that always looks like a mistake.
Two small bumpers or a blob of adhesive putty at the bottom corners of each frame keeps it level against the wall and stops it marking the paint.
A group with one strong horizontal line — all the frame tops level, or all the bottoms level — reads as more considered than one with no alignment at all.

Common mistakes

Hanging pictures at standing eye level — Rooms are mostly experienced sitting down. The centre of the picture belongs at 1450 to 1500mm, which almost always feels lower than instinct suggests.
Centring each frame individually rather than the group — The eye reads the whole arrangement as one shape. Centring frames individually produces a group whose overall mass sits in the wrong place.
Varying the gaps to make things fit — Equal gaps are what tie mixed sizes together. If it does not fit, change a frame, not the gaps.
Measuring from the top of the frame and ignoring the wire drop — The hook holds the wire, not the frame top. The picture then hangs several centimetres higher than planned, every time.

If it doesn't work

The group looks like it is floating too high

Cause: Centred on standing eye level rather than 1450 to 1500mm — Fix: Drop the whole arrangement so the group's centre is on the eye line. Above furniture, close the gap to 150 to 250mm.

Frames will not stay level

Cause: Single hook and a slack wire, or a frame that hangs off-centre — Fix: Two hooks spaced apart under one frame, or D-rings fixed to the frame sides rather than a wire. Bumpers at the bottom corners help.

The arrangement looks unbalanced

Cause: Visual weight — dark, large or busy frames clustered on one side — Fix: Balance by visual weight rather than by count. Move a dark frame to the lighter side and re-check on the floor before re-hanging.

The wall is textured or artex and pre-2000

Cause: Possible asbestos in the textured coating — Fix: Do not drill until it has been assessed. Adhesive hooks on a sound surface, or a picture rail, are the interim answers.

Questions people ask

How high should pictures be hung?

With the centre of the picture, or the centre of the whole group, at 1450 to 1500mm above the floor. Above a sofa or sideboard, keep 150 to 250mm between the furniture top and the lowest frame so the two read together.

How big a gap should there be between frames?

50 to 80mm, and the same everywhere. Smaller reads as crowded, larger breaks the group apart, and unequal reads as accidental. Cut a spacer to the chosen size rather than measuring each gap.

Do the frames have to match?

No, and a mix usually looks better. What has to be consistent is the spacing and the overall shape of the group. One repeated element — the same mount colour, or all black frames in varied sizes — is enough to tie a mixed set together.