Creating an Art Wall for a Shared Space

You’ve probably noticed that gallery walls are popping up everywhere you turn, but there’s more than one way to fill a large wall with a mix of artful pieces. When putting together the living room in the Nod Family Home, I created a more flexible version of the popular gallery wall using photo ledges.The great thing about this concept is that it can evolve and change easily to showcase different art, photos and ephemera from your life. Have a new vacation photo? Add it in. Find a great piece of art at a local art fair, prop it up on the ledge. It’s a great way to showcase everything that’s beautiful to you in the moment, without worrying about framing, measuring and wall anchors (man, I hate wall anchors!).Here are some elements I’d recommend adding to your art wall.

1. Paintings & Illustrations – Collect pieces that are both framed and unframed from your favorite artists. Look for items that pull together the colors in your room, or include sentiments that apply to your family. Get a mix of vertical and horizontal for variety.
2. Photographs – Include family photographs on the wall. They can be propped up on the ledges, layered in front of art pieces or tacked to the wall space between your shelves. These can be a mix of professional photos and snapshots. Consider using some of your faves for Instagram. The pics we capture on the fly with our phones are often the most representative of our family’s chaotic, wonderful daily life.
3. The Kid’s Art – Include a couple pieces of your kid’s favorite art. I’m constantly amazed by the beautiful watercolors, doodles and paintings that my children create. These can be easily swapped out to display the current favorite.
4. Objects & Toys – One of the best things about this photo ledge approach versus a gallery wall is that it’s easier to create 3-dimensional objects. Maybe a small toy that makes you laugh, or something from your own childhood. Or, even a jar of sand from a recent beach vacation. There are tons of different small items that can add dimension and make the wall uniquely yours.
5. Painted Canvases – If you need to fill space, consider buying some small stretched canvases and painting them yourself in a graphic shape or pattern to pull the color story together. For ours I simply made a diagonal tapeline on the canvas and did them all two-tone. It grounds the wall, keeping it from getting too chaotic, and gives a backdrop to smaller layered pieces.

Overall, don’t forget to have fun with your art wall. Embrace the playfulness of childhood, and incorporate things that have a bit of that sass. For this wall, we used a handful of mini chalkboards and wrote the words, “sleep, eat, play, repeat,” a little wink at the fun, yet sometimes monotonous routine of a young family. Look at this as an opportunity to showcase little touches of your family that make you smile, and I guarantee it’ll be lovely.