At long last, I have finally gotten around to completing something I’ve wanted to do since we first moved in to our house, which is to create a gallery wall of favorite art and photos that can be easily rotated and switched out whenever my decorating ADD kicks in.
I started by collecting photos of inspiring gallery walls to see which style I wanted for my space…
{via 1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
Through this process, I discovered that I strongly prefer a random asymmetrical arrangement as opposed to a grid of frames. I also found that while I do love the look of mismatched frames, I wanted a bit of continuity with the style and color of the frames and mats. My final decision was to go with IKEA Ribba frames for their affordability and variety of sizes. I chose black frames over white because the gallery wall is in our dining area, near a sea of black granite in the kitchen and across from a humongous black box of a TV in the great room, and I thought that it would balance it out.
IKEA is fairly far away from my house, so I wanted to be absolutely sure of a shopping list before I went to get the frames. Naturally, I did what any obsessive compulsive over-planner would do – I created an excel spreadsheet. {Don’t judge me.} I made each cell into a square shape by changing the column width; each cell represented one square inch. Then, I found the specifications for each frame on IKEA’s website and drew them out with black, white, and tan shapes. I made sure to “group” each frame’s shapes together so that they would all move together automatically as I copied and rearranged them. Then I fiddled around with some different layouts.
The gray box behind them is the existing piece of artwork that I already had in the space, so I could visualize how much bigger it would be on the wall. The one below was the winner, with the exception of a 5″ x 7″ frame put in place of the furthest right 4″ x 6″ frame pictured…
My final shopping list was:
- 1 – 12″ x 12″ shadowbox
- 3 – 5″ x 5″ shadowboxes
- 3 – 8″ x 10″ frames
- 3 – 5″ x 7″ frames
- 5 – 4″ x 6″ frames {one more than I planned to use, just in case…}
All of the frames totaled about $110.
Once I get them home, I laid them out on the floor just to make sure the layout still looked good in real life and not just my Excel world…
HOORAY! I still liked the layout, but the hard part was yet to come… I won’t lie to you – the IKEA Ribba frames are very poorly designed. There’s a reason why they are so cheap. There are no D-rings on the back, only clips that slide up and down on the vertical part of the cardboard backing. Therefore, if there isn’t a snug fit of the clip around the cardboard, the clips can easily let the frame sink down on the wall once you hang it. And, the smaller frames {4″x6″ and 5″x7″}, don’t even come with a set of hanging clips. Also, some of the frames tended to lean off the wall at the top. I was able to solve these problems fairly painlessly. Here are my tips:
- To place the nail on the wall, I used the screw-in-a-paint-stir-stick method. Basically, you place a small screw halfway into the end of a paint stir stick. Then, hang the picture wire on the screw and hold it up the wall. When you find the perfect spot, remove the picture while holding the paint stir stick in place. The location of the screw is the place you want to put your nail. Give it a light tap and there will be a mark on the wall for you to hang your nail.
- Make sure you make little marks on the back of the frame where the clips are at the time you found the nail spot. That way, if they shift around on you, you don’t have to fiddle with them randomly to try to find out where they were before. I may end up supergluing my clips in place eventually.
- The smaller frames {4″x6″ and 5″x7″} only come with one clip each, which is pretty useless if you ask me. So, I removed the clip from the 4″x6″ frames and added it to the 5″x7″ frames so I could at least have the larger frames hanging. For the 4″x6″ frames, I cut strips of Command Velcro picture hanging strips in half lengthwise, and put one on the top and bottom of each frame. It seems to be enough to hold the 4″x6″ frames up.
- For the frames that were leaning away from the wall at the top, I used a halved Command Velcro strip at the top in addition to the picture wire. It’s not enough to support the weight of the larger frames on its own, but it’s enough to hold it flush with the wall.
Hopefully those tips will save you some of the pains I went through in hanging mine!
For the artwork, I picked out some of favorite photos and turned them to black and white. {You can do this with free programs like Picnik or Picasa.} Just to be safe, I laid them out in the Excel file to ensure that the sizes and orientations for each photo were correct.
I placed the order online at the Costco online photo center since I was pretty certain they did 12″x12″ printing. I was extremely pleased with the price and quality. In total, all of the pictures were under $15. Here it is with all of my black and white photos in place!
I wanted the three 8″x10″ frames to be filled with black and white art as opposed to photographs. My sister had drawn a Seattle illustration that I knew I wanted to use, and she offered to draw a picture of Eddie as well for the vertical one. Until she finished with those, however, I wanted to fill it all with photos so that it would look complete.
I just love it! All of the pictures are either photos I’ve taken from the different places we’ve been together or family pictures from the wedding. It took longer than I thought, but it was so worth all the work to be able to display our favorite photographs…
Do any of you have a gallery wall? I’d love to see it! And I hope you all have a safe and happy new year!
Very cool! Got inspired by your project and I bought some frames this weekend, I don’t have any photos yet, but printing them today =)
Awesome!! I’d love to see a photo when you are done!
Excel spreadsheet. Brilliant!
You’re my kind of gal. Thank you so much for sharing your process with me. It’s just what I needed to FINALLY do a photo wall in our home.
A fellow Excel lover!!! Thanks for the comment. I’d love to see pictures when you finish
Very nice!
Love lt!!! Can you tell me the approx overall dimensions?
Julie, it’s about 69″ wide by 45″ tall overall. Thanks for stopping by!
love it! totallly inspired! i will post pics when finished
Very nice! I plan on heading to ikea for some frames then.
Thank you for writing this! My husband and I just had a hell of a time with the 5 x 7 RIBBA frames. He was ready to throw in the towel. I’m going to try command strips.
Glad I could help! They really are frustrating to hang but look so nice for the price…
Thank you so much Amanda for the tips. I didn’t know those Command velcro strips even exisited but they work perfectly with the not-so-perfect Ikea frames. Your gallery wall looks really great too. Thanks again!
I love it! Thanks for posting in such detail!
These guidelines were just what I was looking for. Thanks for posting such clear instructions and pictures. Do you have any recommendations on websites where I can download some black and white pictures? I have been wanting to create a gallery with photos of sites in Paris, London, Sydney, New York and such. Thanks again!
Hi Anjana, glad I could help! I took all of these photos, but you could try a google image search and set the filter to only “large” sized photos do they won’t be grainy when you print them.
Hi Amanda, I finally got around to selecting my pictures and sizing them in Picasa. I ended up picking our own photos from place we have visited. I am going to get them printed next! What finish did you pick – something close to matte is what I am thinking. Thanks once again!
We printed in matte from Costco!
awesome stuff. i need ur help my wall is bigger(10ft X 10ft) than ur wall proportion,please suggest me each frame size
thanks
Thanks a bunch for this post!! It resulted in a beautiful frame wall that was not a headache to put up. We had bought the Ribba frames and didn’t even realize they would be a nuisance to put up. So thanks thanks thanks for making it possible for my husband and I to complete this project without him throwing out all the frames in frustration
I noticed you purchased 3 5×7 frames, but you only ended up using 2, right? Thanks so much–this is great!
Al, I used all 3… Upper right, lower middle, and farthest right. Thanks for stopping by!
this is fabulous! thank you …totally inspired to finally ger around my photo wall. I didnt know those strips existed or that the ikea frames would be such a pain…thank you thank you thank you!
Looks great. I found your page when I Googled about the difficulty of hanging the smaller Ribba frames and now you’ve inspired me to be a bit more ambitious than neatly aligned frames … !!
Thank for this post! I have a similar project planned from some recent travels and last night I was already to hang my RIBBA frames! The 8×10 frames worked great but the 5×7 and the 4×6 had me nearly in tears! I don’t understand how you are supposed to hang these when the metal clip is about 1 inch into the frame – either you need a really long nail, or a wire, or ???? It sounds like the Command Strips are the way to go – I will try these I guess and try to still make my vision come alive!
Happy to help, Jessica! If the 4×6 came with a single clip, move it to a 5×7 so that your 5×7 can be hung with wire. Then use command strips for the 4×6. Would love to see your finished project!
Good Idea! I was thinking about just using the Command Strips for both the 5×7 and the 4×6 as they make it easier to hang the frame exactly where you want it – the wire takes a little more work. I may purchase both wire and the strips just to make sure I have all of my bases covered
I would love to get that excel file so I can play with it and rearrange as I need to or learn how to create one! I’m good with excel but I’m stumped… Any help?
It’s easy! Play around with the width of the columns until the rows and columns are equal widths, forming a square shaped grid instead of rectangle. Then, pretend each box is 1″x1″ and use the draw shape tools to draw rectangles in the sizes of the frames you have or are planning to buy. (ie: 8″x10″ frame = 8×10 on the grid). Good luck!
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I think my problem is I have no concept of measurements! I really should have tried harder in Math class..
seems difficult for me.
Amanda can you share your layout with me? Please email me at myjunk.at@gmail.com
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I cannot thank you enough for sharing this tutorial!! We pretty much replicated your layout and are beyond thrilled with our new gallery. You can see the pics of how it turned out on our blog http://patioliving.tumblr.com
Truly, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!
Erica,
What a great job you guys did! Love seeing how it looks in white since I was considering white frames too lol. Thanks for sharing! Tried to comment on your blog but couldn’t find it on tumblr haha
Amanda
Wow! Wow! Wow! So happy to have found this post!!! Love it! I will defenitely follow these tips while putting together my gallery wall!!!
) 12.29.12
I found this post on Pinterest, is it possible to get a copy of your layout in excel emailed to me? It looks great and I would love to do something similar. I have heaps of Ribba frames but have no idea how to display them. This is a great post thank you for sharing. My email address is lou_bon@hotmail.com.
Thank you so much for sharing this. I wonder what the measurements of your wall were? I love the layout but my husband is concerned with the dimensions of our wall being too small.
Hello! Beautiful wall! Can you tell me how you were able to print photos that fit Ribba’s mats?
I am having a really tough time finding where I can print photos in the odd dimensions given when using the mat the frame comes with.
I printed at Costco and trimmed to size! Was really inexpensive too…
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Amanda,
This is probably a dumb question but are your measurements the size of the picture or the size of the frames? I ask because I am trying to find the ribba frames in the 8×10 and 5×5 and 12×12 and I don’t think they carry them anymore, at least it is not on their website.
It’s the photo sizes, the frames and mattes are larger. Hope that helps!
Thank you so much! I thought I was going crazy because i couldnt find them. Would you be able to tell me what size are the frames themselves?
Off the top of my head I’m not sure but on ikeas website you can look at the product descriptions and it says what the frame size is as well as the photo size with and without the matte.
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