Gallery wall and 8x10 picture frames

AELS picture frames for a gallery wall

A gallery wall is a design built from many small decisions. Start with the largest frame at eye level, slightly off center, and build outward with gaps of two to three inches. Mixing one or two ovals or arches among rectangles gives the wall movement; keeping the color of the frames within one family — black and gold, bronze, walnut — keeps it calm.

Eight by ten is the size that reads from across a room, so it is the size our gallery frames are created in.

Shapes, lines and contrast

Our 8 x 10 frames carry the same cast relief as the tabletop range at a larger scale: beading, scrolls and vine pattern around ovals, arches and rectangles. Dark frames give strong contrast against pale walls; gold and bronze warm up gray or white space. The lines between frames matter as much as the frames themselves.

What to hang

Family portraits, an artist’s print, botanical plates, children’s art and abstract prints all work, and silhouette cutouts look striking in oval frames. Many people love one sculptural frame as the anchor and simpler frames around it.

Materials and hanging

Polyresin with a hand-brushed finish, glass fronts, hooks for either orientation and easel legs for a mantel. Hinged collage frames hold two or three photographs side by side. Plan the layout on the floor with paper templates first — the experience of hanging becomes far easier.