A popular choice for stairwells, kids’ spaces, entryways or anyplace you want to make a statement, gallery walls draw you in, engage you in conversation and add a layer of interest to your home.
“I think it creates a personality,” says Lee Milazzo, founder and owner of Samuel Owen Gallery with locations in Nantucket, MA, and Greenwich, CT, known for immersive art experiences at the galleries and two decades of experience helping clients curate and hang art in their homes. “If you have one piece of art on the wall and you stand in front of it, it can deliver on different levels, but if you do a salon style wall, it’s the equivalent of going to dinner with one person or going to a cocktail party with 10 people. It’s more layered.”
The term salon originated with the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in France. From 1725, exhibitions from the school were held in the salon carré at the Louvre—later shorted to salon. As time went on, according to the Tate Gallery in the UK, the term salon became a generic French term to describe any large mixed exhibition. Today, art lovers take this approach at home to add interest and layers to their interiors.
“It’s a great option for walls where the shape of the wall is not symmetrical due to architectural features or furniture placement and doesn’t offer a clear location for a focal statement,” says Lina , co-founder of Greenwich, CT-based Curated Nest Interiors.
While there are no hard and fast rules to hanging art salon style, as the technique is called, there are ways to ensure your art looks its best and enhances rather than overwhelms your space. Here’s what the pros keep in mind.
Don’t let any one piece be the star.
“The goal isn’t to come in and say, ‘Wow, that one piece is amazing!’” says Milazzo, who doesn’t like to start with one piece of art and just place other smaller works around it. If it’s done right, the whole grouping of art “should read as a single piece,” he advises.
Start with an anchor.
That doesn’t mean you can’t start with one inspirational piece, which is how Ashley Prymas and Janet Little, founders of The Little Plucky artist collective in New Canaan, CT, like to create gallery walls. You can use that piece to get inspiration for colors, style or theme, and build off of it, but once it’s hung, it should contribute to the overall effect rather than stand out.
Milazzo likes to start with three pieces that complement each other without competing and then fan out from there. “I don’t like to struggle or labor over it,” says Milazzo. “It’s like an eye exam, ‘Which looks better, 1 or 2, 2 or 3?’ Then I’ll step back and see what I’ve done and maybe I swap two because I have two blue pieces next to each other and I’m done.”
Gallery walls work well when there are lots of other statement artworks in the room, adds . She and co-founder Erin Coren recently designed a gallery wall around Coren’s flatscreen TV in the kitchen of her modern Tudor. “We had a large, underutilized wall in the kitchen,” says . “It was a great place to add art for visual interest and personalization.” A structural beam perpendicular to the wall on the ceiling, and built-in appliances further added challenge to the project and prohibited any symmetrical art layout. “When the TV is in art mode, it becomes part of the gallery wall, creating a beautiful installation which doesn’t scream, ‘a TV lives here,’” she says.
Have a theme…or don’t.
In order to ensure your gallery doesn’t show one piece of art too prominently, the key is to make sure all the art is the same or all of it is different, advises Milazzo. If you choose all contemporary frames, don’t throw one in that is more traditional. “Be sure your frames coordinate with each other at minimum in style,” says . Frames should be all a little different or all exactly the same so as not to draw the eye to any one piece or cluster or art.
For a simple and modern approach, for example, choose multiple pieces from one artist and hang them together in the same style frames, like a selection of Hunt Slonem’s iconic rabbit works, says Milazzo.
Or mix and match painting, sculpture, sketch and pop art. “I’m looking at our wall right now and we have this really beautiful abstract painting right above a seascape and next to a large floral and a small lemon painting and it all just really works,” says Janet Little.
Little and Prymas describe a recent project for a New Canaan client who had collected lots of art and never hung it. “We did a gallery wall in her main living area and it was a true mix of realistic paintings, pure abstracts and lovely watercolors of these little baby birds,” says Prymas. They helped the client choose a few new works to add with them in different mediums. It’s a great example, she adds, of how hiring a professional to help you group art together “makes the space come alive.”
Focus on balance, not symmetry.
“My approach to the gallery wall is similar to the design of an entire room. It’s all about balance — and remembering that balance doesn’t mean symmetry — it’s rhythm,” says Antonio Pippo, founder and principal designer of Antonio Pippo Interiors. “A little misalignment keeps the eye dancing. The best gallery walls feel collected and curated over time and show off personality.”
For a gallery wall in his own home in Armonk, NY, he chose one work of art to build around, making sure to mix large- and small-scale works, adding in a wire sculpture and mixing sizes and textures. “I made sure that every frame and piece of art should bring something different to the conversation,” says Pippo.
Don’t overthink it.
You can measure the space, lay your works out on the floor and take a photo to plan how you are going to arrange your art, says Milazzo, but when you start to hang them on the wall, they can sometimes feel different. “I always end up deviating from what I thought I was going to do,” says Milazzo. Art is about feeling say experts, so don’t overthink it too much.
“Choose what resonates with you,” advises Little. “It could be a feeling, it could be a memory—tell us what you respond to, and we’ll take note of that and go from there.”
You want a salon wall to have some spontaneity,” says Milazzo. “You can spend endless amounts of time trying to plan out a salon style wall and come up with the same result as you did when you didn’t put much thought into it.”
If you are doing a gallery wall for the first time, just be mindful, less is more, advises . If your medium is photography, stick to all color or all black and white. If you have prints and paintings, make sure the saturation of color is similar. Muted color gives a vintage look while vibrant colors pop against white walls in modern spaces. Mix shaped and sizes. “In the end, what matters is that you are surrounded by pieces you love,” she adds, “but keeping these guidelines in mind leads to a more balanced and harmonious gallery.”
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