How Triangles Can Help You Make The Perfect Gallery Wall

Gallery walls are the key to modern and artsy home decor. They're elevated and elegant while still looking organic and packed with personality. But if you've tried to create a gallery wall yourself, you've probably realized it isn't quite as easy as it looks. More often than not, you end up with a chaotic mess that looks nothing like the inspirational photos on your Pinterest board. Surprisingly, there is one shape that can help anyone create a more balanced gallery wall: the triangle. 

Triangles are a useful tool in interior design at large. The "triangle principle" says we should arrange decor items like the three sides of a triangle and contain most of the decor within that triangular frame. Doing this helps create something organized and aesthetically pleasing. And yes, this works for gallery walls, too. 

Before getting started and creating shapes on your wall, do an inventory of the art you have available. A good gallery wall has several pieces of art in a cohesive color theme. Ideally, have one or two larger pieces and smaller ones, but there is no strict rule. You can even do a gallery wall without framed art by using mirrors, drawings, and posters. The true key is to have things that you love and that you'll be excited to look at every day.

To start designing your gallery wall, determine a triangular area where all of the pictures will hang. The triangle can have the floor, ceiling, or walls as some of their sides. Triangles can even be created in unexpected spots like corners. The other lines will be imaginary and created by the gallery wall edge. 

You can wing it and create the triangle in your mind by looking at the wall. To be a bit more precise, use a pencil to create some guidelines directly on the wall, and erase the marks before hanging the frames. If the gallery wall is very large, it can be more difficult to create straight lines. In that case, an Edward Tools Chalk Line Tool Set can be helpful. 

To create the perfect gallery wall, plan out where each frame will go within that triangle. Of course, frames don't have to be fully contained within the shape; some might poke out, like in the video above. The idea is to follow this guiding principle rather than placing artwork all over the wall. For renters, adhesive picture frame hangers, like 3M Command Strips, can be helpful to attach artwork to the wall without using nails. These temporary attachments also allow you to switch things up and maintain the triangle principle when new pieces of art need to be added to the gallery wall.