The photos are on a phone. The wall is empty. Somewhere between those two facts is a set of decisions about sizes, spacing and frames that most people make by ordering a few prints, holding them up, and hoping. That usually produces a wall of similar sized rectangles floating slightly too far apart.

A gallery wall that looks considered comes from planning the arrangement first and ordering prints to fit it, rather than the other way round.

Measure the wall, then decide the shape of the group

Start with the area the arrangement will occupy, not the number of pictures. As a rough guide, a gallery wall above a sofa or sideboard looks balanced when it spans about two thirds to three quarters of the furniture below it, and sits with its centre at eye level, roughly 145 to 150cm from the floor.

Mark that rectangle on the wall with low tack tape. Everything else fits inside it.

Then pick an arrangement type and commit to it:

• Grid. Identical frames and sizes in even rows and columns. Calm, formal, and the easiest to hang accurately. It suits sets of related images.
• Salon hang. Mixed sizes packed close around a strong central image. Lively, forgiving of odd sizes, harder to balance.
• Line hang. One row at a consistent centre height, frames of varying size. Works well along a hallway or above a long piece of furniture.
• Anchored cluster. One large print with smaller ones grouped to one side. Good when you have a single photo worth being the subject.

Choosing print sizes

Variety in size is what stops a wall looking like a catalogue page, but the variety needs structure. A workable pattern is one large print, two or three medium, and four to six small, with a clear step between each tier rather than sizes that are almost but not quite the same.

Check the resolution before you commit to a size. A photo from a recent phone will hold up at A3 comfortably and often larger. Older photos, screenshots, and anything saved from a messaging app will not, because the file has already been compressed and resized. As a working rule you want around 200 to 300 pixels per inch at final print size, so a 3000 pixel wide image is comfortable up to roughly 25cm across.

Aspect ratio matters as much as size. Phone photos are usually 4:3, cameras 3:2, and standard frames are often neither. Printing a 4:3 photo into a 3:2 frame means cropping, and if you have not chosen where the crop falls, the printer or the frame will choose for you. Decide the crop yourself on every image.

Mixing black and white with colour

All black and white is elegant and easy to unify. All colour is livelier and harder to hold together. A mix works when the colour images share a palette, and fails when they do not. If your photos come from ten different years and holidays, converting them all to black and white is the quickest way to make them look like a set.

Spacing, the detail that decides everything

The single most common mistake is spacing frames too far apart. A gallery wall should read as one object. Between 5 and 8cm between frames is the range that works for most arrangements, and consistency matters more than the exact number: pick a gap and hold it everywhere.

For a grid, keep the gap identical horizontally and vertically. For a salon hang, keep the gap consistent but let the outer edge of the group be irregular. For a line hang, align the centres of the frames rather than their tops or bottoms, since that is what the eye follows.

Lay the whole arrangement out on the floor first and photograph it from above. Adjust on the floor, where moving something costs nothing. Then cut paper templates the size of each frame, tape them to the wall, and live with them for a day before drilling.

Frames, mounts and paper

Frames unify or fragment a wall more than the photos do. Two reliable approaches: one frame style throughout in varying sizes, or a deliberate mix of two finishes, for example black and natural oak, alternated across the group. A random assortment of whatever was available reads as random.

Mounts, the card border between the print and the frame, do more work than people expect. A generous mount gives a small print presence and lets you use a larger frame without a larger photo. Keeping the mount width consistent while the frame sizes vary is another quiet way to make a mixed group look intentional.

On paper, matt and satin finishes suit walls better than gloss, which reflects room lighting and makes photos hard to see from an angle. If a photo has deep blacks and you want them to hold, a heavier fine art or photo rag stock is worth the extra. Our large photo prints page lists the papers and sizes we hold.

Ordering the prints

Order everything at once. Prints made in one batch on one paper will match each other in tone; prints ordered over six months will not, and the difference shows most on skin tones and skies.

If you are printing to fit mounts, order to the mount aperture rather than the frame size, and add a few millimetres so the print sits behind the mount edge rather than exactly meeting it. Say so when you order, because "10 by 8" can mean the paper or the visible image depending on who is talking.

Printing your gallery wall with us

Send us the photos with the sizes you want and we will tell you honestly which files will hold up at the size you have picked and which will not, before you pay for a print that arrives soft. If a favourite image is too small, we will say what the largest sensible size is rather than printing it big and letting you find out.

We print the whole set in one batch so the tones match across the wall, on matt, satin or fine art papers, and we can supply prints sized to a mount aperture if you tell us the measurement. Have a look at large photo prints for sizes and papers, or our photo gifts guide if some of the wall is going to be canvas rather than framed paper. Send your list and measurements through our contact page and we will come back with sizes that work together.

Frequently asked questions

How many photos should a gallery wall have?

Odd numbers tend to sit better than even, and between five and eleven suits most walls. More than that and the arrangement needs a grid to stay readable.

Can I print photos from Instagram or WhatsApp?

Sometimes, at small sizes. Both compress images heavily, so find the original file on the phone or camera if you can. The difference at anything above postcard size is obvious.

What height should the centre of the wall be?

Around 145 to 150cm from the floor for a standing eye level. Lower it slightly if the arrangement sits above a sofa where people are usually seated.

Should every frame be the same colour?

It is the safest choice, and it lets you vary sizes freely. If you want a mix, use two finishes rather than several, and distribute them evenly across the group rather than clustering them.