Halloween Gallery Wall
Happy Halloween week, everyone! It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of going over the top for any holiday, and Halloween is definitely one of my favorites!
Since this year is looking very different than previous years, I wanted to find a fun way to get festive without doing any entertaining or our usual trip to Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights. I also wanted to minimize the amount of new decorations I purchased since I already had a good collection going from previous years and only a small apartment space to decorate.
My husband and I have a huge leaning gallery wall on our living room wall (using IKEA Mosslanda picture ledges) that is typically filled with movie artwork and since I’ve spent most of my free time here on the sofa (anyone else feel like they’ve watched every single thing on Netflix during quarantine?) I was ready to see something new on the wall. So I thought it might be fun to switch out the prints for something a bit more spoOoOky for the season! We already had a good collection of pretty basic picture frames in various sizes (mostly purchased at IKEA or Michaels). So I got started in planning out the wall.
The first step was to measure all the frames that I had and start a list with frame colors and dimensions. Next, I started searching the internet for digital prints. The first print I found, that inspired my gallery wall was the It’s the Most Spooky Time of the Year print from Thread Mama. I loved the design and the color and used that starting point to look for coordinating pieces.
Here are links to the artwork that I used for my gallery wall, but you can find a ton of amazing digital prints for sale on Etsy if you want to incorporate some of your favorite Halloween movies and characters.
A few tips for picking out artwork:
Make sure you check the Etsy listing and you understand whether you are going to receive a digital print (meaning just a downloadable file of the artwork) or an actual physical print that will be mailed to you.
I started by searching for my favorite Halloween movies — like Hocus Pocus. There are so many cool pieces of artwork inspired by popular movies like that, so you’re bound to find many different styles to fit your space.
When building a gallery wall it’s important to balance the images you use. You don’t want to put two busy images next to each other or it will look cluttered. You will want a mix of more detailed pieces and simpler pieces. You will also want a mix of more colorful pieces and black and white pieces.
You will also want to have some color coordination between the prints. They don’t need to be super matchy-matchy, but coordinating colors that tie different pieces together.
The next step that I did that helped a lot is I took screenshots of the artwork that I liked (before purchasing) and I used a free iPhone app called ProKnockout to superimpose an image of my existing gallery wall with the new artwork (you could use photoshop for this, but it doesn’t have to be very neat and the app was a very quick way to do it). I just dragged the screenshots and sized them to fit over the existing picture frames in the photo. Then I could play around with the order of the images to get the best layout and make sure the images were going to work for my wall.
Once I had all the images picked out and I knew they would look good together, I purchased the digital prints and downloaded them to my computer. Since I had the list started of what each frame size was, I was able to take my superimposed image (showing which art I wanted in which frame) and matched up the dimension I would need to make the print.
Then I used Vista Print to have my artwork printed. They have several different sizes available for posters. I had all my artwork printed on semi-gloss paper (no lamination) just because this was the cheapest option and I didn’t need these prints to be super high quality since they would only be displayed for the season! If they don’t have a print size that matches your frame, you can always have the artwork printed on a larger size and just make the graphic the correct size of your frame and you can cut it to the correct size once it arrives.
Also, always remember to check for coupons for Vista Print. There is seriously almost always a 40-50% off coupon available, I always search retailmenot.com for coupon codes.
Once the artwork arrived, I filled all the picture frames. And then came the fun part of styling the shelves! I already had my superimposed image that I used as a reference for the layout of the frames, but I also moved some things around once I was holding them in person. For a leaning gallery wall like we have, I find it’s important to swap between a larger size and a smaller size and to have some of the artwork overlap the others.
I had a cute sparkly pink star garland leftover from my bachelorette party earlier in the year, so I thought this would tie in some of the pink colors in the artwork on the walls. Then I wanted to add an extra Halloween touch so I made a super simple bat garland by cutting out some bats on black paper and taping them to a piece of string.
And that’s it! (And by “that’s it!” I actually mean prepare to spend some time on this :P I watched all four of the Halloweentown movies while doing the cutting and framing and styling of the wall) so just make sure to throw on your favorite Halloween movie and light some cozy fall candles to get you in the festive spirit while assembling your wall.
I absolutely LOVE how our wall turned out and although we can’t entertain this year, I love that it feels like a mini celebration everyday when I see it, even if we are just having scary movie marathons and eating way too much candy at home :)
How are you all celebrating Halloween this year? Cheers! - Rachael
