Decorate with Photos: 21 Ideas and Tips for your Personal Photo Wall
A home with empty walls often looks impersonal and not very homely. Yet the expressive power of pictures can be used to create an individual wall decoration that leaves an impression. Let our tips and ideas for your personal photo wall inspire you. In our article, you will learn which style suits your interior, which hangings and concepts are available to skillfully set photographs in scene and what you should consider when framing photos.
The Right Preparation for the Creation of your Photo Wall
Before you get creative and decorate your wall with photos, a little preparation is needed. We will provide you with helpful tips to assist you in creating your personal gallery.
How Big should the Photo Wall be?
Consider in advance how large your photo wall should be approximately and on this basis select a suitable wall, which has enough space for your creative project. Depending on the generosity of the location, you can determine the style of the wall decoration. If you hang the different pictures over a piece of furniture, for example a sofa, the optimal starting position is the width dimension of the furniture.
Which Room is the most suitable?
Choose the perfect location for your decorative wall based on its image size and style. For the bedroom, compositions that create subtle accents like a classy row hanging are suitable. In wide rooms with high walls such as living room, dining room or staircase, extensive hangings such as Petersburg hanging or Insides the Lines hanging are eye-catching. A structuring atmosphere is brought by the grid hanging and a wall grid, which is why they fit especially well in the office or children’s room. We present all hanging variants and ideas for beautiful decoration ideas with photos in more detail in the article. In general, it is important that there is enough space and the room is not crushed by the photo deco. The optimal height of the picture is 155 cm, ie. the center of the image should be at the viewer’s eye level.
What Shape should the Photo Wall have?
After you have found the ideal place in your home, you can now devote yourself to the optimal arrangement of the wall design. It’s best to lay out the photos for this on the floor in advance; this will make it easier for you to imagine the final composition on the wall. Then take a picture with your smartphone so that you have an image of your idea. Another option would be to trace the original photos that you want to attach on wallpaper remnants, old newspapers or clay paper, cut them out in the same format and put them in desired position as paper templates on the wall to stick. This procedure is also a practical Assistance with the presentation of your future photo wall, since you can also already measure out the appropriate distances between the different images. You also have the advantage of trying out different templates and combinations. Great collage templates you can also download for free on the Internet for inspiration.
What materials are needed for a Photo Wall?
For preparation:
- Measuring scale
- Ruler
- Scissors
- Pen
- Adhesive tape
- Paper (newsprint, wrapping paper, wallpaper scraps, clay paper, etc.)
For Mounting:
- Nails and hammer or removable adhesive tape
- Picture frame
- Washi tape or metal clips (mounting without frame)
- Spirit level
- Spacers made of solid cardboard
Inspiring Decoration Ideas with Photos for your Personal Style
The motto is: Anything that pleases is allowed. Consider in advance what kind of photos you want to arrange. Do they follow an overarching theme, size or color scheme, or do you prefer a mix of everything? It looks particularly harmonious if the wall decoration matches the personal living style, the arranged piece of furniture or the wall color. We present you the most popular arrangements.
Tips for your Modern Photo Wall
With modern living style, the motto is: less is more. Here is emphasis on exclusivity and timeless decorative elements. Perfectly matches a photo collage on thematically related topics in gallery design. Selected photographs in black and white look and simple framing will complete your interior. Choose a combination of different image sizes that overlap in a dense arrangement, generating a smooth transition between the variety of images. Stylish motifs that go well with the modern style are. Landscapes, animal and human portraits, and architectural, abstract and graphic photo designs.
Discover framed animal photographs in black and white or Black and white or landscape images in powerful colors from KunstLoft. Combine several motifs with each other and create your personal photo gallery.
Creative Ideas for your Photo Wall
There are no limits to the imagination here. The more colorful and unusual the composition, the better. Combine black and white with colorful photos, put on show everything that excites and inspires you –. the choice of topics is unlimited with this motto.
The formats may also be of different sizes and asymmetrical in their spacing. This picture wall looks especially creative when the formation of the pictures is unusual. For example, photos can be attached to a string of lights with clothespins. Many strings of lights, evenly arranged among each other, create a picture gallery with a wow effect. Instead of attaching selected pictures linearly next to or below each other, you can also stage them in a special shape such as a heart or a star.
An even more straightforward way to arrange favorite photos is with a wire grid or memo board. Discover these modern pinboards in animal shapes like Panther, deer and elephant from KunstLoft. With small clips you can attach photos and co. in an instant.
Everything for a Harmonious Photo Wall
For a harmonious design, a common thread is the be-all and end-all. This feature can show itself in many ways: through a overarching theme, such as nature, flowers, faraway countries, or by choosing a particular color family. Any color is allowed, the main thing is that all images are in harmony with their color scheme. Whether motifs in pastel shades, in cool shades such as blue and turquoise or in simple black and white – give your favorite color a place to unfold. The matching effect of your wall is enhanced if all pictures are uniformly framed.
Harmony results as if by itself with calm color tones such as beige, white and earth tones. Either choose the color of your pictures in these nuances or paint the wall, on which the photo wall is located, in a subtle shade. A wall design in this color scheme exudes calming accents and is especially suitable for the bedroom.
Ideas for a Personal Photo Wall
Photographs of family, friends, memorable events and vacation experiences give you an effective place to remember with a photo wall.
Old family photographs in black and white bring nostalgic flair to the wall.
If you don’t have any antique family photos, you can edit ordinary photos with a photo editor in vintagestyle or you go in search of a nice snapshot at the next flea market visit.
When it comes to choosing a motif, you are completely free. For example, you could cluster different themes such as vacations, birthday parties, children’s portraits or arrange recurring events such as the first enrollment in school, wedding, baptism, etc. by generation, so that a visual time travel through their family history is created.
Tip: Framed photographs, which are additionally framed in a passe-partout, have a particularly noble effect.
A modern idea to stage family photos is the combination of photo and color accent. To do this, place the picture on colored clay paper, cut the colored paper to the frame size and frame it. Narrow frames in black or silver bring out the play of colors especially well. Combine colors that harmonize with each other, such as pastel colors, and arrange the pictures at different distances. This gives the decoration idea more dynamism, but the uniform frames still make the thematic connection clear.
Are you passionate about motorcycling, traveling for a living or interested in botany in your spare time? A gallery wall with a certain motto or theme is a special tribute to your hobby.
The 5 Most Popular Hangings to Successfully Showcase Photos
There are the most different possibilities to present your favorite photos artfully. Depending on whether you want to display an entire collection or just a few pictures, there is a suitable concept for your photo selection. We present the most popular variants and give you tips on how they are guaranteed to succeed for your home.
Petersburg hanging
For the St. Petersburg hanging, also known as “salon hanging”, the principle of organized chaos applies. It originated as an important art collection in the famous Russian art museum of the St. Petersburg Hermitage. Spread across 350 halls, a total of more than 60,000 works of art hang here tightly up to the ceiling. The opulent collection of paintings is intended to impress and encourage people to buy art. Typical of this hanging is that different pictures combine to form an interesting and harmonious overall work of art. It is still present today in many castles and museums, and is now also a popular way to decorate walls in the furnishing sector. To make the Petersburg hanging work in your own home, we have put together some tips for you:
- Start with the largest photograph from the inside out. Best position is the central upper third of the wall.
- None of the photos should be placed directly in the center and stand out, so all the images can work as a harmonious whole.
- Smaller photos with intricate details are best positioned at the outer edges and at eye level. Larger motifs that are also easily recognizable from a distance can also be positioned higher up.
- Small images should end parallel with one side to the next larger image.
- To keep the arrangement from looking completely disorganized, imagine a rough top and bottom line for orientation when you hang it.
- Same frames, theme related motifs and even spacing also bring more calmness into the Petersburg hanging. To measure the distances, use a spacer made of sturdy cardboard or wood.
- Be bold! To create an effective picture wall, add to the photographs, drawings, illustrations or even paintings.
- Petersburg hanging needs space. You can find a suitable place in large rooms with high ceilings, for example, a staircase.
Edge Suspension
More uncomplicated than the Petersburg hanging is the edge hanging, which is also suitable for low walls. It is ideal for hanging several photographs of different sizes. With our advice, nothing can go wrong:
- Consider a horizontal line on a wall at eye level and fix it with a string or tape. To ensure that this is straight and the pictures can be hung correctly, then check the position with a spirit level.
- Align the images to the top and bottom edges of the line. The distance between the photographs should be exactly the same.
- For a balanced effect, equal picture frames are recommended.
- Edge suspension works both horizontally and vertically.
Row Suspension
Here everything is lined up in rows. In row hanging, symmetry and precision are the standard. The classic among the arrangements succeeds in the following way:
- In its classic form, the row hanging consists of a horizontal row. For this, you place photographs at the same height and in each case at equal distances from each other. Equally sized formats create an even more accurate effect.
- Especially beautiful: several images of a related series of motifs.
- For loosening up provide square photographs between the portrait format images. Another variant is to combine pictures of different sizes, with one picture as the center. Comparable to a string of pearls.
- Less is more! If there is little space on the wall, a row hanging with three photographs is sufficient. Otherwise, a constricting spatial effect is quickly created.
Tip: Photographs in this composition can also be arranged well on a picture rail or on a wall shelf. Effortlessly, photos can then be exchanged and rearranged.
Perfect for hanging in rows offer our framed Art photographs in black and white look. The pictures show realistic detail shots of flowers and are a stylish eye-catcher not only for botany fans
Grid Suspension
In a strictly uniform scheme, the images hang parallel edge to edge and evenly spaced. Here we tell you how to successfully implement grid hanging.
- Uniform frames in a simple gallery design and the same formats emphasize the symmetry of this variant. Overall, the grid hanging looks discreet and yet expressive.
- Consisting of at least four images, you form the collage into a square or rectangle.
- This hanging is not fixed to one format. Whether the pictures are portrait, landscape or square is up to you.
- The space determines the number of photos. Nevertheless the grid suspension suitable for all room sizes, as they create a structuring atmosphere.
- You can achieve a more intense effect with images in the same style or with the same subject matter: e.g. monochrome colors, portraits, nature motifs.
- This hanging on a complete wall is impressive. Particularly stylish: attach Polaroid photos in square format to a wall or door with adhesive pads or metal clips without spacing, e.g. in an unusual place such as the hallway or toilet. Your guests will look forward to the snapshot gallery.
Inside the Lines Hanging
The free spirit among the hanging variants is the Inside the Lines hanging. Viewing axes, formats, spacing and choice of motif play no role here. The arrangement of the pictures is determined by you, by thinking about a geometric shape in advance, which gives the hanging an optical structure.
- For better visualization, fix the lines of the figure to the wall with tape.
- Whether triangle, circle or oval – everything is possible. The only rule in this hanging is to keep the imagined shape.
- Start with the photograph in the largest format and gradually place smaller images around the main work.
- This loose composition is optimal for small-scale photographs with different frames and formats.
The Right Framing for your Photo Idea
With Framing
Decisive for a photo wall are not only the choice of motif, hanging and location, but also the correct framing. The different frame types emphasize the desired effect of the wall decoration.
Uniform wooden frames in black, natural or white discreetly emphasize the motifs and have a structuring and simple effect. They are ideally suited to row and grid hanging, as they skilfully express the gallery effect of this arrangement. Black and white frames can also be combined in a harmonious interplay.
Do you prefer it more colorful and fancy? Colorful frames in different sizes bring that certain something and make the wall design look creative. The frames are just as much a part of the overall work of art as the pictures and design it with an additional wink. With the Petersburg hanging, the edge hanging, as well as the Inside the Lines hanging, colorful picture frames feel perfectly at home.
Tip: Antique picture frames in gold or silver emphasize the nostalgic charm of family photographs.
By the way: You can find individual frames to design yourself in our KunstLoft DIY Gallery.
Without Framing
If you want to remain flexible in your photo selection, it is of course also possible without framing. With colorful or monochrome adhesive tapes, you can effortlessly attach the photos to the wall and replace them again as the mood takes you. Another advantage is the ease of attachment and that neither adhesive pads nor nails and hammer are needed.
A photo line is another creative idea to bring photos and Co. decoratively on the wall. To do this, simply attach a cord or, for the photo wall effect, several cords to the wall with two nails and attach the pictures with clothespins or metal clips.
Tip: Photographs can also be arranged well on a picture strip or on a wall shelf and rearranged at any time. If you combine several picture strips with each other, an original alternative to a classic photo wall is created.
Deco Ideas for the Wall from KunstLoft
You have an empty wall free, but still missing the right pictures? At KunstLoft you will find what you are looking for. We offer artwork for every taste and every room. While XXL paintings develop their effect best as a single piece, acrylic paintings in small format, photographs and card posters can be optimally arranged into a meaningful picture wall. You can find inspiration for this in our online store.
Discover even more tips for designing your walls in our magazine:
Photo credit:
Image 1: burst.shopify-Farah; Image 2: pexels-cottonbro; Image 4: unsplash-tahereh Amin.
Figure 9: Dom J from pexels; Figure 10: pexels-taryn elliott; Figure 16: pexels-max vakhtbovych
image 17: pexels-bri schneiter; image 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11-15: KunstLoft