How to plan a gallery wall (without putting holes in it)
Lay it out on the floor first. Then work out spacing, then commit. Most bad gallery walls are bad because someone started with a hammer.
A gallery wall is a group of prints hung together as one shape. It is the cheapest way to make a room look finished, and the easiest thing to get wrong, because the mistakes only become obvious once the holes are already in the wall.
1. Decide the shape before the prints
Two shapes work for almost every wall:
- The grid — equal sizes, equal gaps, straight edges. Calm and deliberate. Best when the prints vary a lot in colour, because the layout does the organising.
- The cluster — mixed sizes around an invisible centre line. Looser and more personal. Best when the prints already share a palette or a subject.
Pick one. A grid that drifts out of alignment reads as a mistake; a cluster that is almost a grid reads as a failed grid.
2. Work out how much wall to fill
Measure the furniture underneath and aim for about two-thirds of its width. For a wall with nothing under it, fill roughly half the wall width and centre the group at eye level — about 150cm from the floor to the middle of the arrangement.
| Wall or furniture | Prints | Suggested layout |
|---|---|---|
| Above a study desk (~1.2m) | 4–6 A4 | 2 rows of 2, or 3 across |
| Above a bed (~1.5m) | 3 A3 or 6 A4 | 1 row of 3, or 2 rows of 3 |
| Above a 3-seater sofa (~2m) | 6–9 A4, or 3 A3 | 2 rows of 3, or a cluster |
| A full feature wall | 15–40 A4/A5 | Dense cluster, edges uneven |
3. Spacing is the whole trick
Use 5cm between unframed prints and 7–8cm between framed ones — frames need more breathing room because the border already adds visual weight. Keep the gap identical everywhere. Inconsistent spacing is the single thing that makes a gallery wall look amateur, more than the choice of prints ever will.
Lay the whole arrangement on the floor first, in the exact shape you plan to hang it. Photograph it from directly above. You will rearrange it three or four times on the floor — which is free — instead of on the wall, which is not.
4. Hanging in a rented flat
Most Indian rentals have hard plaster or concrete walls, and most landlords object to drilling. Three approaches that hold 300 GSM paper:
- 1.Mounting putty at all four corners. Cheap, invisible, removable, but it can pull paint if the wall was badly finished. Test one corner in a hidden spot first.
- 2.Double-sided foam tape. Holds much better in humidity than putty, and is the right choice in Mumbai, Chennai or Kolkata between June and September.
- 3.Washi tape across the top edge only. The print curls slightly at the bottom, which some people like. It is the only method that does zero damage.
For framed prints, adhesive hooks rated well above the actual weight — an A3 in a frame is around 700g, so use a hook rated for 2kg. Adhesive ratings assume perfect surface prep, which no one does.
5. Order slightly more than you need
Buy two or three prints beyond your layout. One will arrive and turn out wrong against your wall colour, one will end up somewhere else in the flat, and having spares means you finish the wall in one evening rather than waiting on a second order.
30–40 prints in one order, cheaper per print than buying individually
Keep reading
Framed or unframed? An honest comparison
A frame roughly doubles the price of a print. Sometimes that is obviously worth it, and sometimes it is the wrong place to spend the money.
Poster sizes in India: A5, A4 and A3 compared
The three sizes are 148×210mm, 210×297mm and 297×420mm. Which one you want depends less on the poster and more on how far away people stand.