The Beautiful Gallery Wall Alternative HGTV's Nate Berkus Recommends

Artwork and other accents can be a great way to add interest to walls, tell the visual story of a room, and reflect the homeowner's personality and style. However, large blank walls can be challenging to fill, with considerations of size, scale, and focal points entering the mix. While many designers recommend employing a gallery wall approach to decorate a large wall, HGTV's Nate Berkus suggests that a gallery wall, while striking, may not be the only way to fill the grand space. Instead, investing in large-scale artwork can sometimes be the perfect solution for huge swathes of wall space.

"Large-scale art, when well-chosen, can be a fantastic investment," Berkus tells MyDomaine. "It can create a constant focal point for a room and can be moved around to different spaces as you move." These larger pieces of work can often make the task of filling a wall much simpler. In some cases, they can also be a less expensive alternative to smaller frames and more complex configurations of art.

The instant focal point provided by large pieces works particularly well over larger furniture like beds, sofas, or entertainment consoles. As Nate Berkus says in a video on Instagram, "Even just one large scale piece can have a huge impact over a sofa or over a bed." Hanging extra large artwork can also be a great way to fill up some of the more awkward areas of a home, such as along a stairwell wall or the far end of an entryway to draw the eye. It can also be used to counterbalance (or even hide) other unwanted focal points like a television screen. 

Large art is especially great for adding interest to rooms whose dimensions are already quite expansive. The simplicity of a single large piece, however, can also work in smaller spaces by streamlining the amount of visual clutter that breaks up the eye and the room. The overall effect of using more sizeable art pieces often evokes a clean and stylish look, which works much more effectively than a gallery wall for spaces that boast a more minimalistic aesthetic. 

While large-format artwork can be expensive, especially if professionally-framed or brought as a collector's item from an artist, there are some great alternatives that are more budget-friendly to get the look Nate Berkus suggests. While larger vintage and antique paintings like mammoth landscapes and seascapes can be tougher to find, they are a great way to fill up space in one go. You can also have any reproduction printed on canvas. Berkus says to "take imagery that you have taken on your phone, on trips, of people that you love, crop it in really interesting ways, ... blow it up," per Instagram. Then, you can frame the piece inexpensively yourself, add it to a wood canvas frame, or use simple bamboo magnetic hangers to hang it on the wall. You can even add a faux finish using Mod Podge over a regular large poster print to add texture and dimension and fake the look of an oil painting.

Another alternative to large single pieces of artwork is to add a mural to your room. This can either be hand-painted or employed through peel-and-stick vinyl, which is a great alternative for rental spaces. You could also install sheets of a large mural, fabric, or wallpaper inside a huge frame constructed with picture rail molding that's installed directly on the wall.