Staircase Gallery Wall : How to Hang and Arrange Art

Tips on how to create a staircase gallery wall and 8 ideas for gallery wall arrangements! 

Gallery walls are awesome!

Let’s be honest, it’s something you’ve probably heard me say many, many times on here before (and in my book too).  I’ll admit, I  do have a rather irritating  way of repeating myself over and over when I get excited abut something. And gallery walls do excite me . .  trust me! (have you seen the one in my bedroom?)

Especially gallery walls on a staircase wall! I mean, what better way to transform a seemingly awkward space into a striking feature right?

Yes, before you ask, I am one of those people who likes to do fancy things to their stairs (just see what I did here!). To me, it seems absurd to have a beautifully styled home but a bland staircase and wall. And if your house layout is anything like mine, the staircase is literally the first thing you see when you enter in the door so it’s so important that it looks good!

Hanging pictures is the most traditional way to decorate a staircase wall. However because of the angle of the steps,  it can sometimes be a little tricky to get everything looking cohesive! In this post, I’m sharing basic tips on how create a simple staircase gallery wall along with ideas for picture wall layout.

 

HOW TO HANG ART TO MAKE A STAIRCASE GALLERY WALL

This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure page here

THING’S YOU’LL NEED:

• Roll of Kraft paper
• Painter’s tape
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Level
• Hammer
• Nails or self adhesive strips

 

HERE ARE THE BASIC  STEPS . . . 

1. CHOOSE YOUR ART AND FRAMES 

Deciding on a theme from the start helps to streamline the whole process. Choose art that reflects your personal style and tastes. That can either be family photos or art with particular colours/prints inspired by your surrounding decor (or a mixture of both). Questions to ask yourself include;

• Is their a certain style of art that couches your eye? I’m drawn to abstract art!
• Do you want your gallery wall to tell a story and/or showcase precious moments in your life?
• Does a certain lyric or quote make you feel happy?
• Do you a particular colour scheme? Mine is yellow . .  naturally 

If you want  a more casual looking gallery wall, you can use different style  frame sizes and colours. For something a little more formal, stick to the same sized frames and colours. As long as you remember to add a little touch of uniformity when it comes to the arrangement  – it will all pull together and look cohesive.

Where to buy art:

• ETSY: I like to download and print art from favourited seller. I talk more about that here 
• JUNIQE: This shop is based in Berlin and sell a range of prints, frames and stationary ( FYI  the prints in my frames were gifted to me from there!) They are giving my readers a 25% discount code if they use the code MEDINA25, valid until 1st March 2020
• SOCIETY 6: is one of the best options for more affordable art perfect if you’re looking to fill an entire gallery wall without breaking the bank.
• DESENIO: Sells very gorgeous Scandinavian style Art posters

2. MEASURE THE WALL

Honestly, I’ve never measured a  gallery wall ever – but I understand that there are a few of you out there who might like to take a more mathematical approach to this. If that’s the case, grab a tape measure, and measure the width of the entire wall, starting  from the bottom of the staircase, all the way to to the top. This will help you determine the size of your gallery wall, how many pictures you can hang and if you’re being really particular, the exact gaps needed between each frame.

3. PLAN YOUR LAYOUT 

In order to avoid mistakes, having an idea of the general layout for your gallery wall before hand helps a lot. Here are some picture arrangements for a staircase wall similar to mine.

 

Depending on which  layout you choose, you can use painters tape as a template or guide for your gallery wall.

If you want a ‘stepped picture’ arrangement for example (see above),  mark vertical points at the top of every step or every 2-3 steps  (at approx 60 inches in height or less depending on the height of your wall) until you have a straight line like below.

Cutting out outlines of your frames from Kraft paper and sticking them to the wall is a great way to visualise how your gallery wall might look before fully committing .  Position the pieces of paper at equal spaces along the painter tape line . Once complete, take a step back and review the final layout to make sure everything is symmetrical on the wall (or snap a picture on your phone and refer back to it) .

Note: you can use a level to make sure you gallery wall looks straight- especially important  if you plan to hang everything with self- adhesive strips as opposed to nails

4.HANG YOUR PICTURES

If you’ere not too fussed about making holes, use pictures nails to hang your art . Else  you can use removable wall strips. Sometimes with nails, you’ll find your frame may move about, so adding wall bumpers or blue tack to the four corners of your frames will help!

 

And there you have it!

 I hope you’ve found this post useful. Have you ever attempted a gallery wall on your stairs before. Let me know in the comments below. Don’t forget to pin the below image to Pinterest.