Gallery Wall Layout Generator

The short answer

Plan the frames as one piece. Keep the same gap between every frame, about 2 in to 3 in. Above a sofa, bed or console, make the group about two-thirds to three-quarters as wide as the furniture and hang it with its bottom 8 in above the furniture. On an open wall, put the center of the whole group at 57 in.

The layout above is a sample: 7 frames above a sofa 84 in wide, arranged salon style into a group 60 × 46 in. That’s 71% of the sofa’s width, and the group runs from 42 in to 88 in above the floor. Change the frames and the wall to make it yours, then download the hanging map.

Hanging a single piece? The picture hanging height calculator finds the spot for one hook. Still choosing the art? The wall art size calculator gives the width to look for above the furniture.

How to measure

1. Each frame: measure the outside of the frame, edge to edge, the way it will hang. A frame sold for a print size is bigger than that print once the moulding is added, so measure the frame itself.
2. Hanger drop: turn a frame over and pull its wire up toward the top, as if it were on the hook, then measure from the top of the frame to the wire. With D-rings or a sawtooth hanger, measure from the top of the frame to the hanger.
3. The furniture: measure the width of the sofa, console or bed and its height from the floor to the top of the sofa back, the console or the headboard.
4. The wall: measure the width of the wall you’re filling and the height of the ceiling.

How to use the generator

1. List your frames. Each row is one size and how many frames of it you have. Add standard sizes from the list, and turn a frame from portrait to landscape with the turn button. The generator draws up to 24 frames.
2. Pick a layout: Salon, Grid, One row or Around the largest. Set the gap between frames and the hanger drop.
3. Describe the wall. Leave “Above a sofa, console or bed” ticked and enter the furniture’s size, or untick it for an open wall. Enter the wall’s width and the ceiling height.
4. Read the result. You get the layout drawn to scale, how its width compares with the furniture, and a table with the height of every nail and its distance from the wall’s left edge.
5. Take it with you. Download PDF gives you a hanging map to print: the wall to scale, the nail list, the paper templates to cut and a few tips. Copy summary puts the nail list on your clipboard, and Print prints the page.

Nothing you enter leaves your device. Once you change something, your frames and settings are kept in this browser until you press Clear.

How the layout works

• One piece. A gallery wall works as a single picture: it’s the outline of the whole group that gets centered, sized and hung.
• Spacing. Every frame keeps the same gap to its neighbors, side to side and top to bottom. Aim for 2 in to 3 in. The generator starts at 2 in.
• Height. On an open wall, the center of the group sits at 57 in, the same height the picture hanging height calculator uses for a single piece. Above furniture, the bottom of the lowest frame sits 8 in above it. The gap can run from 6 in to 12 in, but it’s best not to go much closer than 8 in.
• Width. Above furniture, the group is rated against two-thirds to three-quarters of the furniture’s width: a group in that range fits, one a little outside it is tight. The wall art size calculator uses the same range for a single piece.
• The layouts.
  • Salon: the frames are shared out from the largest down so the rows come out about the same width, and each row is centered with its largest frame in the middle. The largest frame of all sits in the exact middle of its row. When you hang a salon wall, start with that frame and build outward.
  • Grid: rows and columns of equal cells, each as big as the largest frame, so it’s made for matching frames.
  • One row: the frames side by side with their centers on one line, which keeps a row of mixed sizes looking even.
  • Around the largest: the largest frame in the middle and the others stacked in a column at each side, balanced by height, so the largest piece gives the wall a clear center.
  • Grids and salon walls use one row for up to three frames, two rows for up to eight and three rows beyond that.
• Nails. Each nail goes at the center of its frame, the hanger drop below the top. Heights are measured from the floor and distances from the wall’s left edge. The group is centered on the wall, and the furniture is drawn centered too; if your sofa sits off-center, shift every nail sideways by the same amount.
• Rounding. Measurements are shown to the nearest quarter inch (or half centimeter).

Paper templates on the wall are the best test: if the layout looks right to you, it is.

Worked examples

Worked example

Seven frames above an 84 in sofa

What we know

• Frames: 1 × 20 × 24 in, 2 × 16 × 20 in, 4 × 11 × 14 in
• Layout: Salon
• Furniture: 84 in wide, 34 in high

How it works out

1. Layout: 7 frames, 2 in apart, make a group 60 × 46 in.
2. Height: the bottom 8 in above the 34 in furniture, at 42 in.
3. Nails: frame 2, the highest, hangs from 85 in, 3 in below its top.

With its bottom 8 in above the 34 in furniture, the group runs from 42 in to 88 in above the floor. At 71% of the furniture's width, it's inside two-thirds to three-quarters of the width (56 in to 63 in).

Worked example

Six 16 × 20 in frames in a grid on an open wall

What we know

• Frames: 6 × 16 × 20 in
• Layout: Grid
• Open wall

How it works out

1. Layout: 6 frames, 2 in apart, make a group 52 × 42 in.
2. Height: the group's center at 57 in.
3. Nails: frame 1, the highest, hangs from 75 in, 3 in below its top.

With its center at 57 in, the group runs from 36 in to 78 in above the floor.

Grid gallery wall sizes

With a 2 in gap between frames, here’s how wide and tall a grid of matching frames gets. Six frames sit three across and two down, nine sit three by three and twelve sit four across and three down.

Compare the width with the furniture below: above a sofa 84 in wide, a grid 56 in to 63 in wide keeps to two-thirds to three-quarters of the sofa’s width.

Before you drill

The same tips close the hanging map.

1. Measure each frame on the outside, edge to edge. A frame sold for a print size is bigger than that print once the moulding is added.
2. Trace each frame onto kraft paper or newspaper, cut it out and write the frame's number from the hanging map on it.
3. Turn each frame over and mark its hanger on the matching template. With a wire, pull it taut toward the top before you measure.
4. If a frame's hanger sits higher or lower than the hanger drop you entered, move that nail up or down by the difference.
5. Tape the templates up with painter's tape, starting from the center, and check them with a level and a tape measure before you drill.
6. Drive each nail or hook through the mark on its template and tear the paper away. Hang the center or largest frame first, then work outward.
7. Hang wide or heavy frames from two hooks, spaced like the D-rings on the back and level with each other.
8. Use a stud where you can; elsewhere, use an anchor rated for more than the frame weighs. Level each frame once it's up.