The “Go Small” Method Will Transform Your Gallery Wall (It’s So Easy!)
Displaying family photos is a beautiful way to personalize your space, especially in a gallery wall. But finding just the right way to frame and mat them to match the aesthetic of your space can be a challenge. Turns out, though, there’s a little trick you can employ that will make your modern pictures blend into your style but still stand out on the wall, and it’s inspired by vintage photos.
“If you want your collection of family photos to look chic instead of tacky, I’m going to let you in on a little secret — and it might be counterintuitive,” interior stylist Carlotta Cisternas said in a recent Instagram video. “You need to print them small. Smaller than you think.”
While showing off pictures of your family isn’t tacky, no matter how you do it, the “go small” method is definitely going to be an aha moment if you’ve wanted some fresh inspo and struggled to find ways to show any small vintage photos of your ancestors you have.
“If you think back to photos that you might have of your grandparents, they’re probably all pretty small,” Cisternas continued. “Of course, it doesn’t mean that large photographs can’t occasionally have their place in your home, but as a rule of thumb, displaying small photos will help you maintain a nostalgic, elegant look to your home.”
And to help those small photos “pack a punch,” Cisternas recommends putting them in much larger frames with some interesting matting — fabric can also be used here. These gallery wall frames at Pottery Barn are perfect to achieve this look. The mat fits a 4×6-inch photo, but the frame itself is actually 9×11 inches.
And how cute would this gingham fabric be wrapped around the matboard? You can learn how to expertly wrap your matts (and frames, for that matter!) in fabric with this IKEA hack.
Of course, you can apply this to the rest of your gallery wall as well — as Cisternas shows, you can incorporate landscapes and prints with your family photos as well. “Going small” doesn’t just have to be for portraits!
Although there’s no right or wrong way to display family photos as long as you love the look of them, this vintage photo-inspired tip might just help you make your picture display feel a bit more like you.