Home Is Where Your Art Is: How to Hang Art & Create A Gallery Wall

1. Welcome! : Need an ice breaker for your next dinner party. Well, my favorite conversation starter at any party is to talk about the art on the walls. I love learning the story behind the artwork in people's homes. Art tells our stories, I shares about places we have been, people we have met and our own personal style. I want to help you share your art story in your home. I'm Jamie Smith, and welcome to my class. Home is where your art is, how to hang art and create a gallery wall. I'm an artist myself, but I have also worked with corporate and private clients to buy art for their businesses and homes. I have helped friends and family buy art and create gallery walls of art in their homes as well. I believe art is important. It supports artists. It makes their work happen, and it gives us joy and pride in our homes. I also know from experience that art doesn't have to be thousands of dollars. I want to show you how to build an art collection on any budget. Seriously, it's possible. My mission is to get more art on walls. In this class, that is exactly what we're going to do. Together, we're going to learn about a variety of different ways to hang beautiful gallery wall formations. We will pick a layout that you want to create in your own home. We will take stock of the art we already have. I will show you my tricks on how to buy art on any budget. We will learn about different ways to frame artwork, and by the end of the class, you will be ready to hang your own gallery wall that tells your story. This class is for anyone that believes art is important and wants to get some on their walls. You may have hung in your home, and this class will give you more tricks and tips to framing and hanging art in the future. You may not have any art in your collection, and this class will walk you through the process of buying art right to hanging it on the wall. I am so excited to share what I have learned over the years. Together, let's get more art on walls. 2. Your Class Project: As you can tell, I'm a little obsessed with seeing art in people's homes. Yes, I am that person walking my dog, and I'm craning my neck to see what's hanging in people's homes on their walls. Creepy, I know, but I can't help it. So I'm very excited about this class project because I want you to take a picture of your gallery wall, more images for me to see. First, I'm going to show you different gallery wall options to choose from. And then I'm going to teach you step by step how to hang a gallery wall of artwork. So your project is to hang the gallery wall in your home, post a picture of it in the projects and reserve sections below. I have made a class PDF for you called Home is where your Art is PDF. And this has our project plan and all the steps for our gallery wall hanging method. There is also a PDF called the Gallery Wall Layout guide, and this has pictures of each gallery wall layout for you to choose which one would work best in your home. I've also created a little bonus for anyone who wants help finding amazing artists, called the Artist Finder starter Guide. All the resources are in the resources and project section below. I will guide you through every step from choosing your wall, picking the gallery wall layout you want to use, buying art, framing art, and then finally tips on getting that art on your wall. It's a packed class, and it's going to be fun. For this class, you will need the class PDFs and guides that you can print off or view online and use a pen and paper to journal along as we go. There are little exercises along the way. You will also need a blank wall in your home or a wall of art you want to redesign together. You will need art you already have, and I will walk you through the process of purchasing art on any budget if you have some you want to add in. You will need hanging tools, so that would be a hammer, picture hangers, poster paper for planning, measuring tape, pencil, and a level. I recommend watching this class in full and doing a bit of the planning exercises, collecting your materials you will need like art, frames, and hanging tools, and most likely going back and watching certain videos again to help you guide through specific steps. I do cover a lot in this class, but I'm so excited to get you inspired about how beautiful your walls can look. So let's jump into our first lesson, seeing different types of gallery wall layouts and choosing one that would work for our homes. See you there. A 3. Your Gallery Wall Layout: There are so many ways to hang a gallery wall. Pinterest is full of these ideas. And to be honest, I can find this a little overwhelming. So I have narrowed it down. I've created five gallery wall layouts, and I have used these time and time again. I want these to inspire you and just get us started. Of course, there are many more options you can use. The layouts are included in your gallery wall Layout guide PDF, and we will also use our worksheet in Home is where the art is PDF. I'm going to walk you through each option now, so you're welcome to journal along. By the end of the lesson, I want you to choose a layout that would work well in your home and what you would be excited to hang. As I go through each layout, consider the artwork you already have in your collection, the size of the wall you're going to use, and what layout really inspires you. So our first layout is a gallery wall layout one, big and balanced. The gallery formation in this one uses a large anchor piece in the center, and then there are smaller pieces on each side to balance it out. You'll see there is a wood cut on the left hand side, and this piece is not a typical square or rectangle. It's in the shape of a vase. This adds variety and helps keep things looking balanced. I highly recommend using similar frames in this formation as the frames create a strong symmetrical wall, which is really important. Our next gallery wall layout is follow the leader. This formation is great if you have a longer wall, and you have a lot of pieces to hang. We want to measure an art corridor with a top line and a bottom line. When hanging up the artwork, make sure the pieces stay in the corridor and don't dip above or below. This constraint helps make multiple pieces of art and many frames looked unified and thoughtful in the layout. Our next gallery wall layout is Bits and Bobs. This is a great formation if you have a small area and a lot of small art pieces. They really take over the entire space, and it looks really fun. Also, by using a lot of different shapes and sizes, you can create an exciting wall. I'd recommend heading to a local antique or thrift store to collect interesting items to add to this wall of art. Gallery wall Layout four is feature pieces. If you have in your house a lot of gallery walls, it's nice to pick a couple favorite pieces, usually bigger ones, and they can take up a whole wall. Make sure the pieces compliment one another and are spaced evenly in this layout. Gallery wall layout five is cross and cluster. This is a great way to make an impactful gallery wall with many small pieces. The layout works if you have five pieces of art that are similar in size. They create the cross. We use this for the main cross formation, and we add smaller piece in the four areas created to really make the wall feel thoughtful and laid out. I hope these layouts have inspired you. For this lesson, we are going to choose the wall we want to use on our home. And we're going to use this for the project. We're going to then pick a layout that works well for this wall. Remember, you are totally allowed to change your mind as you learn more in this class, but we need a starting point. In the next lesson, we're going to take stock of the art we have and what we need to gather to make our chosen layout come to life. I'll see you there. 4. Your Art Inventory: We now know what wall we're going to use. We know our layout we want. Now, what about the art. So we need to do a little inventory of what we have and what we need to add to the collection to make our layout come to life. First, we want to look at what we have and what could work for our wall. Collect the art and have a look. Does anything need to be re framed or modernized in some way to make this work? For example, frames can have a big impact on the look and feel of artwork. Typically, older styles of frames are darker with browns or black, and they can make the artwork look quite old and dated. This might not work for you if you want more of a modern feel in your home. Vintage, on the other hand, those frames are often darker, and they look perfect to have an eclectic look, and they really add character. So it totally depends what you're going for. If you have older frames, adding a white frame to really brighten up the art and freshen it. You don't particularly need to go buy new art all the time. Now we are going to look at the art we have, and the next thing I want us to think about is personal artifacts for your gallery wall. So this is something I love to do. I have an example for you. I have a dear friend, and last year, I went to her home to help do this exact process I'm teaching you right now. We looked at the art she had. We did our art inventory, and we decided what needed to be reframed and what we needed to have updated. Then we talked about what was really important to her and her husband at this stage in life. They have a new son named Ray, and he is really the center of the family. We wanted their family room to show this new stage in their lives. Again, we always go back to our cocktail party conversations. What do we want to talk about? We included a very arty picture black and white of Ray in the gallery wall, but we also framed a footprint that was taken at a doctor's checkup. At the time, this picture was just stuck in a pile of papers with good intentions of creating Ray's baby book. But instead, we took the footprint and we made it in to a work of art. It became a focal piece of the living room and a real conversation starter. We framed it with a large white matting and framed to give it some substance and to really give it a spotlight. The bonus of this story is that when my friend's husband came home, who was away for the weekend, he was so surprised and happy. We had secretly hung up all the art in their home. But when he saw Ray's footprint, he actually had a bit of a cry. And now that is the power of art. It can tell your stories, and really, your home should be full of your life's artifacts. Now it's time for you to reflect and see if you have any artifacts that you could frame and add to your gallery wall. There are questions in the home is where your art is PDF, and you're also welcome to journal along with me right now. So we want to think about what is important to me right now. How will my art reflect my values and experiences? What stories do I want to share at the next cocktail party? What artifacts do I have that I could frame and hang in a gallery wall? Now that we know what art we have in our art inventory? In the next lesson, I want to walk you through the process of creating your personal art collection core values. These are going to help as we're adding to our collection? I can't wait and I'll see you there. 5. Your Art Collection Core Values: In this lesson, we are going to go through an easy process to add art to your art collection. The phrase art collection has gotten a bit of a bad wrap over time. It brings up ideas of being elite, and only people with money can afford art. Well, I'm hoping we can change this. I want us to think of this phrase as truly an art collection. It is a collection of things, same as you would have as records or books or beanie babies. Just like with any collection, some collectors are buying art as a stored value. They research, they make sure their investment will make the money later on. For me, my collection is about connecting with artists, sharing my travels, using my money to invest in my values, and telling stories about my life. There is so much art in the world, which is amazing, but sometimes it's hard to know where to even to start when buying a piece of art. We need to get clear on what we care about to help us in knowing where to begin. We're going to come up with the art collection core values. You, of course, can use the PDF of provided or journal along as we go through the exercise. I would like you to come up with three core values that you will use to help guide you when purchasing art for your art collection. I'm going to use my art collection as an example. So when I look at my art collection, my art collection core values are. I deeply care about collecting artwork created by female identifying artists. There are so many inequalities in the art world, and I want my collection to support women. I also care deeply about buying art directly from the artists and knowing their stories and the story behind the artwork. I also care deeply about each piece or each artifact in my home to hold meaning and have a story. I think of my collection as truly a collection, and it is going to be built over time, not all bought at once. So not every piece of my collection has to hit all three of my core values, but they typically do. Recently, I bought a piece of art from a male artist. Can you imagine? It was lovely. I met and we connected over our love of florals, and when I went to his studio, I got to hear all about how the work was made and his process. It was a total fit for my collection, and I bought it directly from the artist, and the work has a story. My three art collection core values are buying art from female identifying artists. I want to get to know the artist. I want meaning in all the work in my home. Some other example of core values you could think about are, buying from local artists, buying art when you're traveling, buying art when you see it in person versus online. Buying art that makes you feel a certain emotion or excitement, buying art that supports a cause. So I encourage you to come up with three of your own core values. Those are just examples above. I want these to really speak to you, and we are going to use them in the next lesson. Because this process will become our foundation point. Our values will lead to what we want to buy and bring into our collection together. So I will see you in the next lesson. 6. Your Art Budget: It can be hard to make room in the budget for buying art. I totally get it. But I will tell you once you start buying art with your core values, it is such a lovely experience, and something I promise you you will want to save up for and do more often. I now put aside money every month to buy art, and sometimes I buy something right away, but often I will save up each month for something I have my eye on. I typically spend $50-200 on a piece of art. A big splurge for me is around $500. This is why I love using the gallery wall layout method because I can buy smaller pieces of art within my budget, but group them together so they are lovely to look at. Typically, the bigger the art, the more expensive, and I'm also in an apartment, so I don't have a ton of wall space. One tip I have for buying artwork on any budget is to mix up original artwork and art prints. Original artwork is more expensive typically, because there's only one art piece like it. It was made directly by the hand of the artist. Prints are typically less expensive because there are multiples of the same artwork. Some people really care about this. I don't as much, I don't mind that, and I try to mix it up to work within my budget. There's an example here of the big and balanced layout. In the middle, you will see this is a painting where I spent most of my budget. It was $500, and that is an original piece. There are also prints that are all under $50 and smaller originals that are $80-240. One thing to note is that a print itself might be cheaper, but any work on paper you need to frame, so you must leave room in the budget for that. In the next lesson, I'm going to go over framing and give some tips on how to do this on a budget. Another way to save money is making your art gallery wall, using personal artifacts like we have talked about already, and just framing those. We have already talked about this in a past lesson, but it is, of course, cheaper to use personal momentos and frame, but you can also use things like greeting cards that you have received and loved or bought yourself. Posters and other printed matter are a great way to add into your gallery wall and keep it under budget. Another tip is to use vintage or thrift store frames to save money and add to an eclectic feel of your collection. Also, by using not only typical rectangular frames, this helps create variety in your gallery wall, as well as bringing in textiles or woven artwork can add different shapes and textures into your gallery wall. I actually made these wooden wall hanging sculptures called woodcuts, inspired from hanging my own gallery walls and hanging things in other people's home. I was tired of the typical rectangle boxy frames, and I wanted something different to add variety into the gallery walls. For this lesson, I want you to answer a couple of questions. So you're going to look at your gallery wall layout that you've picked out. And I want you to answer. How many art pieces do you need for this layout? What is your budget? And what is one thing you could do to extend this budget even further after listening to this lesson? In the next video, I'm going to walk you through finding artists to buy art from to help build your gallery wall. I'll see you there. 7. Buying Your Art: Art can be intimidating to buy, and sometimes it's hard to even know the price. But the art world has changed a lot. And with platforms like Instagram, and website, online shops, it's now very easy for artists to market and sell their own work. In the past, artists did not typically include pricing on their websites because they would have gallery representation. The gallery would handle sales and often set the prices. Now, artists have their own website shops typically, and you can buy directly from them. We most likely need to add art to our collection for our gallery wall layout to happen. If you already have all the art you need and your layout is ready to go, that's great, but I do recommend listening to this video because you want to buy art in the future, and this will help you for your future gallery walls. We have already figured out some very important information. We know our art collection core values, and this is going to help us as we search for our artwork. We know how many pieces we need to buy to make our gallery while layout happen. We also have looked at our budget, and we have strategies on how to extend that budget. So I find Instagram to be the best place to find art right now. Also, you can check out places like Pinterest or Art blogs. There are sites like Society six, Arts, and Minted, that have huge collections of art to look at and are great. I'm going to walk you through the process of how to find artists on Instagram, and it's a very easy one to follow. So typically, I have hashtags that I like to follow, and I love botanicals and plants and flowers. So I'm going to use this hashtag, hashtag, botanical art. I'm going to see all the art that has come up, and I'm going to click on an artwork I like. Once I get to this profile, there's a little drop down arrow, and this is going to show me more accounts like this one. So more art like this and other artists. Be careful. Once you start doing this, it can be a real rabbit hole. So when I find an artist I like, so this one looks great, I'm going to go to their website. On here, I'm going to look at their prices and hopefully they have an online shop. And this is a great way that I can buy artwork directly from the artists. Some artists will only have originals and some will have prints. Then you can start looking at the prices to see if this is within your budget. I want to give you an example of my friend and my studio mat, Rebecca Chaperon. She is a great artist, and for me, she is a great fit into my art collection. She fits my art collection core values. She's female identifying. I know the stories behind her work, and because she's a friend, it is extremely meaningful. She is a trifecta for my core values. So I'm going to find her on Instagram. I'm going to click to her website and go to her shop. So she has original paintings. There are some that are smaller that start from $200 all the way up to huge ones for $3,000. But she also has prints ranging from $45 and up. There are even large ones there that I can buy, and she even has some that are framed and ready to go when they arrive. So I can literally just buy a piece of art from her site and have it arrive in two weeks, and it is ready to go. As you start finding artists that you want to support, maybe buy from them right then, or you can save up and buy later, but you want to start following them along with them as soon as you can. I follow artists on Instagram, and if I'm really curious about what they're doing, their newsletter is the place to actually sign up and get the inside information. So here's an example. My friend April Lacher is an artist, and I'm going to sign up for her newsletter. In just a few steps, this is easy to do. I am going to go onto her profile. I'm going to click her link, and her link in bio is going to take me to a newsletter sign up. I can get signed up, and I am there. I will then, in my inbox, receive latest work, and typically, you'll get access to sales and special offers. So it's really important to get signed up if it is an artist that you really want to know what they're doing. I know this can feel overwhelming at first, but once you start down this rabbit hole, it is so fun to find artists that you love and support them. I want to help you get started on this. So I've created a little starter list that includes artists I love, and it also will share whether they do prints and typically their price points. If you go to the projects and resource section below, you will see a link to sign up and it's the Artist Finder starter Guide. For this lesson, I want you to fill in on the PDF or journal along. But our homework that we want to look into is to find two artists on Instagram that hit at least one of our core values for our art collection. I want you to sign up to their newsletter list. Practice this. And I also want you to order any art that you need for your gallery wall. This is the point in the process where we need to actually get the art so that we can start our hanging. I know art might take a week or two to arrive or longer, and that is totally fine. You can still do the next steps in the lesson and we'll just put placeholders in the areas that you're waiting for art. So no need to worry or pause. In the next lesson, we are going to talk about framing, which is a really important part of the process. I'll see you there. 8. Framing Your Art: Let's talk about frames. We now have our art or our artwork is on the way, and we need to protect it. For a gallery wall, we ideally want to limit ourselves to two to three frame colors or varieties. So, for example, you'll see in this big and balanced gallery wall layout, there are three things happening. White frames, a canvas piece, and a woodcut. In this follow the leader layout, the bold black frame in the center demands the attention. It is the largest and has a black frame. The white frames on the outside flank the piece and are all matching and give it a balanced look. The pattern deer head hanging on the wall breaks up from all the rectangular shapes on the wall. In this feature pieces layout, each framing choice is different, but they all line up and are unified with the top level of measuring. And we have a black frame, a white frame, and Canvas. This wouldn't look good if there was tons more art here, but because there's only three, it is okay, they balance each other. And we want to make sure that we are thinking about the order of things. If you had two white frames and one black frame, you'd put that black frame in the middle to give it some balance. One exception to this rule of two or three types of framing is when you're doing your bits and bobs layout. This wall is all about different sizes, shapes, and frames. The way the wall works is by putting many small, different things together, and that gives it unity because it's all hung together on a smaller type wall. Framing can be expensive, so I highly recommend you do as much as you can on your own. A big thing you can do to save time and hassle is to buy art that is already a standard side size for frames. Most artists do this now, but it is something to definitely check. Buying frames from Michaels or an art supply store can save you a lot of money and those need to be the standard sizes. Often a framer will recommend archival glass to protect the work, but this is also expensive. If you have an original piece of art that you have spent a lot of your budget on, I do recommend doing that because it will protect it from fading over years and years. But I do hate when art is sitting in a pile and not framed. So I highly recommend get it framed. You can always add your archival glass later. Especially if you're doing prints, I often do not do the expensive glass. So just make sure you think about your intentions, your budget, and really think through with your framer about what's a good option for you. The important thing is to get art on the walls. Also remember that this is an art collection, and it is built over time. It will take time to get these gallery walls looking how you imagine them. When you're framing things yourself, I recommend that when you put the wire on the back, you measure down a consistent amount. Depending on the size, this is about 5 " or it could be 3 ", and you want the wire to feel loose, something like this, and not too tight. We want the wire to have some slack for hanging so that we can adjust it and make sure that it's level. When thinking about matting, matting helps protects the work as well. It gives a little bit more room between the artwork and the glass. If you don't want to do matting, and that is totally fine, you can use little spacers that go inside the frame and you don't have to have the matting. It still protects the artwork and from the glass and keeps that space in the middle. I personally use a mix of matting and non matting. I typically do not double mat, and I use only white mats. Often, double matting or using colored mats can make the work look quite dated. If you have a piece of art that is framed this way, I highly recommend buying a white frame or white matting, and the artwork will look like new. Reframe and remat in white, and this will really help, and you'll be shocked about how modern the piece can look. Another thing with matting, is it gives importance to small work. This small work can take up quite a bit of space if you have a large matt and then frame this. This is very good when you're thinking about framing artifacts. Like with Ray's footprint in my example in the other lesson, I gave a lot of matting to give importance to this small artifact. Shadow boxes frames are also very good for artifacts and gives it weight and importance, especially if something is a little bit more sculptural and has a three D aspect. Put it in a shadow box, and it can really give it some m I even just put a nail on the wall sometimes to hang things that artifacts. For example, this is a brass eagle on a globe that belonged to my husband's late father. We now have it hung up in our gallery wall, and it is a real important artifact for us. So don't be afraid to actually just put a nail on a wall and get that object up on the wall. To summarize this lesson. For your gallery wall, we want only two to three frame colors or different materials. For example, Canvas, frames, woodcuts, that sort of thing. We want to buy art that is standard sizing for frames. Buying cheaper frames and framing it yourself can save you quite a bit of money. You can always reframe and remat dated looking art. Typically, white will make it look much more modern. Use mats to help give importance to small works or small artifacts. This gives it a lot more size and a lot more mph in your gallery wall. For this lesson, you can fill in your PDF or journal along, but here is your homework. You need to decide what needs to be framed. Decide on what sizes of frames and mats you need. What colors do you want to buy in these? You need to head out and collect your supplies. In the next video, we're going to plan our gallery wall, and then we're going to be ready to hang it. If you don't have time to go out and collect these types of materials now, you can always keep going with the lessons and of course, go back and fill it in as you get the supplies collected. I don't want you to stop because this is the fun part. We are going to plan it out, and we're going to hang it up. Let's go. 9. Planning Your Gallery Wall: We made it. We are ready to plan our gallery wall. So even if you don't have all of your art yet, you can still do this step, and you can just put placeholders on your wall. It's also a great way to just remember that you have art coming, which is exciting. So this is my wall. It's above my couch, and I'm going to use the layout cross and cluster layout. I have all of my art. And of course, if you don't have your art, you can just cut pieces of paper to the size the art will be. And in the next lesson, we're going to use this for planning. So you'll be ahead of the game. What I want to do is I actually am going to lay all of this artwork on my living room floor to plan things out. I want to create my cross structure with the larger artworks I have, and I'm going to fill in smaller artwork into the spots in the corner. I am going to move these around until the layout looks good. I can always add more art into this cluster over time, but I want to make sure that for now, all of the artworks together. So on the floor, you're going to move things around and try different ideas out because this is what we're going to then plan for to go onto the wall. So we talked about having two to three frame colors or styles of art. And you'll see in this cluster that I actually have a few more than that. But I feel like it's okay because my color palette works together. As this cluster, the colors really work well, and I'm okay with using a few more different types of framing. So I want to make sure that this is going to be balanced. So when you're looking at your artwork on your floor, I want you to think about, how is the viewer going to see this artwork? This is very important. With a cross and cluster format, I want to make sure that it feels balanced. There's a lot of artwork to be dealing with. I want my viewer to look inwards to the art in the cross cluster. So I designed a few balance checks that I'm going to walk you through. So the first one, we're going to actually look at the sizes of the artwork to make sure that this is balanced and looks right. So the first check we want to do is balance the sizes of the artwork. So you'll see in the middle cross section, the artworks are all a similar size. They look nice and balanced. There is a horizontal piece in the middle, but it's surrounded by vertical pieces, which help to balance it out. So that check is good. So when you're looking on the floor at your artwork, you want to look at making sure that the formation you have, no matter what layout you're using, looks good with a size balance. The next check we're going to do is we're going to do a color balance check. So this is important because we want the eye to be pleased by what it sees on the wall. We want to think about the tones we have and how colors work together. So I'm going to show you here that I have the bottom is an abstract piece that has a pink tone. Up at the top in the right hand corner is a paper cutout that has a lot of pink as well. Those now balance each other. You'll also see that I have this little iceberg on the left hand side and tigers on the right. There is a pink tone that is also in there as well, and those will balance the cross. So my colors are looking good. And if you feel that yours aren't, try moving things around into a different formation, and usually it sorts itself out. Colors don't have to all be in the same tone. You can have very different colors happening, but we just want to play around so that it really works and is pleasing to the eye. The next check we're going to do is a subject matter balance check, which I know sounds strange. But what I want is I want the eye of the viewer to stay in my cross and cluster. So one trick you'll see that I did here is at the top, I have two portraits of women, and they are both facing into the cluster. I could have reversed the order, and they would have been facing outwards. And that's not what I want. I want to pull the viewer in. So any figures that you have, push them, make sure that you focus them in towards your layout. The other thing I have is a circle framed of the iceberg. In the bottom right, I have a circled frame little print. Those circles are now on opposite side, and again, balance out the cross and cluster. At the top, I have a figure that has their arm with a bunch of leaves growing out out of it up top, and that looks great as a focal point. As a grouping, this cross and cluster definitely works. So I'm good with that, and I'm going to give myself a little pat on the back, and I can now go on to my next step. Great job. So now you have all of your art on the floor, you're playing around, and you're thinking through your balance checks. You want to look at the size. You want to look at the color, and you want to look at the subject matter. Now we have our plan, and in the next lesson, we're actually going to get all of these pieces on the floor up on your wall, and I have some tips and tricks to make this really easy for you. I can't wait and I'll see you there. 10. Hanging Your Gallery Wall 1: We have a beautiful gallery wall of artwork on the ground. So we need to get this up on the wall. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm a bit of a nail in the wall first, Apologize later person. I am not going to talk about finding studs for hanging your gallery wall. I'm not going to talk about anything technical. Please ask for help if you need to for doing those types of things. Please do them. If you need to. I am going to just show you a technique of getting these pieces on the wall. When I have something that is a large piece, I definitely find the studs. I make sure I have very heavy duty hanging materials. But for smaller pieces, I typically they're lightweight, and I just go for it. Most of the time, I eyeball it, and I have done this so many times now that I would say 80% of the time, it's great. And I'm very smug. And then 20% of the time, it doesn't work out, and it's really annoying and it's not great, and there's holes in the walls. So if I was not filming on class on how to do this, I, to be honest, would guess and just go for it. But I want to show you a real way of doing this with 100% success rate. This is the proper way to go about it. What we are going to do is we are going to take paper or newsprint, and we are going to cut out the shapes of our art. We are basically making a little floor plan for ourselves. So on the floor, you have your artwork, and you're going to actually trace it onto the paper. And you're going to cut these out. We're going to have all the shapes of the artwork that is on the floor, and we're going to mirror that onto the wall. This way, we know exactly how big the art is and exactly what it needs to look like on the wall. We're going to tape them up. So I'm hanging this art gallery wall above my couch. So I'm going to use the height of my couch and go up a little bit from there. One rule of thumb, if you're hanging work that has no anchor point like a couch or a piece of furniture is you want it to be 57 " from the ground. This is the average eye level. So 57 " is a good benchmark for you. We also want typically three to 5 " between the pieces on your gallery wall, and we need to keep it consistent. That is the hard part of hanging a gallery wall. It can look really off if things aren't spaced properly. We are going to tape our paper art to the wall first, and we're going to measure to get it properly spaced. We want the three to 5 " in between so that they look nice and even. By doing this sort of roadmap floor plan for ourselves, it really helps with this process. So each piece you have is most likely going to have a different hanging device on the back. Unless you framed it yourself and you know exactly that each wire is hanging three to 5 " down. You're going to mean to make sure you flip each piece around and use your measuring tape to find where that nail needs to be in the wall. You're going to flip it. You're going to pull the wire up, where the nail would be, and you're going to then measure on your paper art where that nail needs to go. You're going to mark this in the middle of the work with the pencil, again, using your measuring tape. Now, we're going to use picture hooks like this, and you want to have the picture hook at the bottom of that pencil mark because that is exactly where the wire is going to hang. So you've nailed up your paper art and you want to take off the paper now. If you have an art piece that is coming and it's not quite arrived, you can always leave up this paper art. It makes a nice placeholder, and you'll know it'll be replaced. If you haven't ordered your art, it'll motivate you to get that going. Once you have your paper, we're going to actually put our art So our art goes up. And once our art is all hung, you want to use a level. If you don't have one, you can eye ball this, but we want to make sure it's straight. This is the other thing about a gallery wall. They are so fun to put up, but we have to make sure that they are spaced well, and they're straight, because a lot of people, that is what their eye will go to if it's a little bit off. One trick I have is I use sticky tack at the bottom corners behind your artwork to keep it straight all the time. So I kind of stick it to the wall. And that is it. Oh, my goodness, you have art on your walls. This is amazing. This was so much work and you did it. Please take a picture and post it in the project section below. Let us know what gallery layout you chose for your project. In the next lesson, I'm going to walk you through how to post this up because it's so fun to be part of the community and see everyone's gallery walls. I can't wait. I'll see you in the next lesson. 11. Upload Your Class Project: What I love so much about Skillshare is that students are able to share their finished projects with one another. It's really unique. And I have taken a number of skill share classes myself, and I find the classes that I push myself to actually post my project are where I truly learn the most. So please take time to share your project with me. I can't wait to see it. I'm going to give you a little demo of how to do this. So you want to take a picture of your work. I always do this just on my iPhone or my iPad, and you want to then go into projects. So, on your screen here, this is a class. This is my vision board class, and there's projects and resources here, and you're going to click this green button that says Create Project. So here, you're going to see a place to upload a photo. So I just have this in my photo library. It's going to upload, and this is going to become my cover image that people will see. I can then put in my title, so my vision board. And audio correct is the best. And then I just wrote a little description of what my focus is for the year with my vision board. You can write what you like about your project, what you found difficult. You can always make your project private, but I do love being able to share and see other peoples. And then you're just going to press this green button is publish. So publishing takes a couple minutes for this photo to show up, but you're going to see it right under your projects will be there. One thing I love is if I go back to my profile and I scroll down, you can actually see where all of your projects live. And I find this really exciting. I'm really proud of the projects I've done and the classes I've taken. People can like it, people can comment, and it's a great way to have community within skill share. So I find the creative life can be a little hard sometimes. It can feel a little lonely, but remember that you're part of the Skillshare community, and it's a creative one, and it's an important one. So I know that I am a better artist when I'm working in community and I'm participating, and it can feel scary, but it's worth doing. It's so easy with online classes to start them, get distracted, and just not finish them. So push yourself, get that project up, up, and I can't wait to see what you have created. 12. Final Tips: No more empty walls. You are part of the change I want to see in this world. My wish for you is that you continue to build your art collection, that you continue to share your values and your life with the people that come into your home. You can see more of my artwork at Jamie Smith's studio.com and on Instagram and make sure to grab the Artist finder starter guide in the resource section to find other artists that you can follow and support on this journey to building your collection. If you are a female identifying artist and looking for community, I also run a community called Thrive together Network, where members meet weekly and support one another on the ups and downs of a creative life and being artist. Remember, your art collection is truly a collection. It is built over time, so add, enjoy it, move things around, and support artists in the meantime. Support artists by following them on Instagram and signing up to their newsletter, buying directly from them. Remember, you can buy art on any budget. I highly recommend putting a little aside each month as you find art you love. Enjoy filling your home with art that share your art collection core values. Thank you for helping me on my mission to get more art on walls. I cannot wait to see your gallery, and I so appreciate you being here. Thank you. 13. Bonus Video: Using Command Stripes to Hang Art: So I wanted to give you a little tutorial on how to hang art and not damage your walls. Or if you're in a position where you can't put nails in the wall, you still want to have art up there. So we're going to use command strips. These can be found at any hardware store or even art supply store, and they are these fun little Velcro pieces. I use them to hang my wood cuts. So whenever I want to hang something unique on the wall that I don't want to have a backing on, I will use a command strip, and they're really good for any artifacts as well that you're going to hang. So I just want to give you a little demo on how to do it and how to do it in a way that won't damage your walls. So you have the command strips, and these are actually sort of a velcro piece. So we need two of them because they're actually going to velcro together. So I'm going to turn over my piece on the back, and I'm going to push these together. You can hear the snap. And one side, once I take off the backing is sticky. And I'm going to stick this right to my piece of art. If I was doing a framed piece, I'd put one on one side of the frame, one on the other side of the frame. Now I'm going to take off the backing here, and now this is sticky, and that's going to go on my wall. So I'm going to measure my wall. I know where I'm going to put it, and that looks great, and I'm going to press it. And here that Velcro really come together. And that is on the wall. And so this is a light piece of wood, so I only need one. You can buy command strips that do different sizes and do different weights. So make sure that you're buying the correct weight for what you want to hang. And now that's on there. What if I want it off? So you want to get this top piece off. This can come completely off like mine because it's a backing like this, or this part might come with you. We want to make sure that we don't just rip it off or it will rip our paint. So this tab, we want to slowly start to pull it down until it releases our Velcro piece. We don't want to just rip it off the wall or it could take the paint off. But now we have a beautiful wall the way we started. So it is a great way to hang art, especially if you can't put holes in the wall. And also if you want to try something and see what it looks like, they are a great tool to have in your toolbox. So I hope you will hang more art and different unique shapes on your wall, and I can't wait to see it. Thanks so much.