Plan your gallery wall layout on your own wall

The one that fits your wall and your frames. A grid suits matching frames and family photos, a salon suits mixed sizes around one large piece, an asymmetric group suits an off-centre spot, and a staircase layout follows the stairs. Most of the layouts here use three to six frames.

Most gallery walls use three to six pictures, and so do three in four of the layouts here. A small wall in a bedroom, bathroom or nook takes one to four frames across 42–70 cm. A big feature wall can take up to ten, across 1.1–1.9 m.

The socket and the switch are in your photo too. Shift the group across, or open a gap around them, before you pick up a drill.

Leave 5–7.5 cm (2–3 in) between frames and keep the gaps even. A tight grid of matching frames looks best at 4–6 cm, and large frames of about 70 cm or more need 10–13 cm. Every layout here comes with its gaps set.

Hang the group so its centre sits 145–150 cm (57–59 in) from the floor, or about 150 cm in dining rooms and bedrooms. Above a sofa, start the lowest frame 15–20 cm above the back; above a bed, 20–30 cm above the headboard. On stairs, centre each frame 145–155 cm above its step.

Plan it first, so you only drill the holes you need: try the layout on a photo of your wall, then tape paper cut-outs up to check. Light frames can go up on removable strips: keep each frame to about 5 kg on four large strip pairs, or 4 kg if it has glass.