How to Plan a Gallery Wall That Does Not Look Random

A gallery wall either looks curated or looks like a pile of pictures that ended up on a wall. The difference is almost never the individual prints. It is whether one element repeats across all of them.

Pick one constant

Choose exactly one thing that every piece shares, and let everything else vary:

• Same frame, mixed subjects. The most forgiving option. Black frames throughout, and you can hang a mountain next to a comic cover without it fighting.
• Same colour family, mixed frames. Works when the prints already share a palette – our beach and palm posters or the botanical posters do this naturally.
• Same subject, everything else free. Six Golden Age comic covers in different frames read as a collection, not as clutter.

Two constants is fine. Zero constants is what makes a wall look accidental.

Lay it out on the floor first

Clear a floor area the size of your wall and arrange everything there. Photograph each arrangement with your phone – on a small screen you see the composition instead of the individual pictures, and problems become obvious immediately.

Keep the gaps consistent: 5–8 cm between frames for a tight, deliberate look, 10–15 cm for a calmer one. Inconsistent gaps are the single most common reason a wall feels off.

Two layouts that always work

The grid. Same size, same frame, equal spacing, two or three rows. Formal, calm, and impossible to get wrong. Ideal for a series – for example four Japan posters.

The anchor. One large print (XL or 3XL) placed slightly off-centre, with smaller ones grouped around it. Looser and more organic, but it needs a clear size hierarchy: one large, two medium, three small – not six similar ones.

Where the centre goes

Treat the whole arrangement as one rectangle and put the centre of that rectangle at about 145–150 cm above the floor. Above a sofa, aim for two thirds of the sofa's width and keep 15–30 cm of air between the backrest and the lowest frame.

Before you drill

Cut paper templates, tape them to the wall and live with them for a day or two. Mark the nail positions on the paper itself, then drill straight through it. This is the difference between one set of holes and three.

Buying for a wall

Order everything at once rather than one print at a time – it is the only way to judge the whole. All our posters come in five sizes from CHF 16.95, are printed with archival pigment inks and carry a 200-year guarantee against colour fading. Shipping within Switzerland is free from CHF 49.