Designing a Gallery Wall for Family Photographs

There are so many options when it comes to planning and designing a gallery wall of photographs. We take into account the number of images you wish to display, overall frame size, style of interiors, style of frame, mat board size and texture, as well as glass choice. The beauty of custom framing is not only the flexibility to tailor each variable to suit your home or creative space, but also the design advice from our Consultants at FRAMING TO A T.

This family gallery wall features photos that are a range of portrait and landscape orientations. To create cohesion across each framed photograph, the mat board varies to fit each photo so we can achieve the same frame size for each image bringing a uniform and clean look for Cath and Tony’s contemporary-country interiors. We speak to Cath about how this gallery wall design came about!

Have you always had family photographs on display in your home?

Absolutely, we have! Family and our heritage are extremely important to Tony and I, so we’ve always enjoyed the feature of our family wall of three generations. We recently repainted our hallway and when it came time to rehang our framed photos, we decided to make some changes!

We had previously displayed a smaller gallery wall above a small section of VJ panelling alongside the front door and when it came time to rehang our framed photos, the frames and mat boards didn’t sit as beautifully as they had beforehand with the original paint colour.

Each photo represents a part of us and our families. We enjoyed our photos in different sizes and each framed differently with an exquisite mix of timber burl and ornate gold leaf frames, framed by our very own FRAMING TO A T many years ago. Now that the walls are a fresh soft white, we needed to think about changing the old frames and mat boards so that our family photographs complemented our mini make-over with a more contemporary-style frame design and layout!

Talk us through the custom framing design and layout that you came up with for this space?

There were so many photos that we wanted to display in our home, so it seemed a good option to have the photos printed in a modest size. We settled for 8” x 10” photographs so that we could fit in as many photos as we could in this hallway space.

I’ve always much preferred our family photos in one area, rather than scattered throughout the home, which is why a gallery wall has always worked well within my styling. Not only do I love a tidy appearance with a family photographs displayed together in a gallery wall style, but it also allows for other art to be showcased on feature walls, while leaving some walls blank for an element of negative space.

We chose to opt for a wider mat board at 120mm around each photograph for a gallery-look. I also loved the idea of the frame being all the same size to achieve a cohesive finish. The wider border allows us to comfortably fit photographs in both portrait and landscape orientations, resulting in each photo sitting in a relaxed fashion within the frame, allowing a generous amount of mat board around each photo giving us a clean and seamless look.

The frame we selected is a slightly rounded black frame with a soft satin finish, offering a softer profile for the age of some of the photos and a subtle nod to our curving architraves and decorative hallway arch.  

Even though this hallway is not filled with natural light that would stream on the photos, we chose to use the anti-glare glass in this space. I felt any reflection created by clear glass when the pendant lights are on would make this gallery wall feel too busy. The matte effect of the anti-glare glass gives off a solid, dramatic presence. The choice to have our original photos printed in black and white for this new family gallery wall was for a more contemporary look, with a bit more consistency.

Designing and planning a gallery wall layout becomes seamless with professional installation, what was your plan for spacing and placement?

Of course Tony has expertly hung each photograph for this beautiful finish. With a tidy 150mm in between each frame, the two rows of 7 sit proudly on display, with the perfect amount of wall showing either side.

On the return wall and small opposite wall, we have included photos of our children when they were young on these smaller sections of wall. The idea of having these all together in the once space, keeps the space open, and is neat, tidy, uncluttered, refined and stylish. We love the result!