Four designer ways to style your fave snapshots, prints and canvases.

Grab your hammers and nails—and levels! An effortlessly-chic gallery wall is hard to master (trust us, we’ve tried), but these designer tips will make the task seem far less intimidating.How to Design a Gorgeous Gallery Wall - Western Living (Photo: Tracey Ayton)

1. Play with Dimensions

A mix of framed prints and sculptural objects (a faux horsehead, antique mailbag and gilded wishbone) hang in designer Erica Cook’s living room, adding volume to an otherwise one-dimensional feature wall.Pro Tip: A grounded colour palette will keep the variety of shapes and sizes from looking too chaotic.

How to Design a Gorgeous Gallery Wall - Western Living 2. Break It Up

The gallery wall in this Nam Dang-Mitchell-designed basement breaks up the room’s expanse of drywall, adding intrigue—and a pop-of brightness from the all-white frames.Pro Tip: Avoid creating too many straight lines. The gentle arc of this gallery’s arrangement compliments the cozy, intimate space.How to Design a Gorgeous Gallery Wall - Western Living (Photo: Sarah Murray)

3. Start with a Blank Canvas

If you want to display a varied art collection (like actor Callum Keith Rennie did in his loft), stick to white walls. This will allow the colourful artwork to take centre stage.Pro Tip: Build up your gallery around other furnishings. Here, the desk and adjacent shelf could have been obtrusive, but instead gave the actor the chance to get creative with placement.How to Design a Gorgeous Gallery Wall - Western Living (Photo: Tracey Ayton)

4. Scale Down

A gallery doesn’t have to be large. The homeowner of this Gaile Guevara-designed space chose a narrow wall for his collection of snapshots.Pro Tip: Don’t overthink the layout. A mix of picture orientations may look haphazard, but the less-than-perfect arrangement keeps it from being too precious.

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