How to Plan a Gallery Wall with Canvas Prints

A good gallery wall looks effortless, but it's almost always planned. These steps will help you get a tidy, balanced result first time.

1. Choose a theme

Pieces look like a group when they share something: a colour palette, a subject or a style. You might choose three marble canvases in navy and gold, a set of city skylines, or Islamic calligraphy pieces in the same tones. Mixing subjects is fine if the colours repeat.

2. Start with an anchor piece

Pick one larger canvas to sit at the centre or the heart of the arrangement, then build the smaller pieces around it. This stops the wall looking scattered.

3. Pick a layout

• Grid: identical sizes in neat rows, such as four or six square canvases. Clean and modern.
• Line: pieces of different sizes lined up along a shared centre line or a shared bottom edge. Great above a sofa or sideboard.
• Salon style: a mix of sizes clustered together around the anchor piece. Relaxed and personal, but it needs careful spacing.
• Triptych: one design split across three canvases. It's the easiest gallery-style look, because the panels are designed to hang together. Many of our designs come as a three-panel set; just choose "Triptych – 3 Panels" on the product page.

4. Plan it on the floor first

Lay the pieces on the floor and move them around until you're happy. Then cut paper templates the same size as each canvas, tape them to the wall with low-tack tape, and live with them for a day. It's much easier to move paper than to fill holes.

5. Get the spacing and height right

Leave the same gap between every piece: 5 to 8 cm works for most canvases. Hang the group so its centre sits about 145 to 150 cm from the floor, and leave 20 to 25 cm between the bottom of the art and any furniture below it. Our how to hang a canvas guide covers fixings for every wall type.

6. Mixing canvases and framed prints

You can mix both, but keep one thing consistent: the same frame colour for all the prints, and the same depth for all the canvases. Canvases in a mix of 18mm and 38mm depths can look uneven up close; see 18mm vs 38mm.

How many pieces?

Three, five or seven pieces often look more natural than even numbers in a salon layout. For a grid, even numbers are fine because the symmetry does the work.

Browse square canvas prints for grids, or art prints to mix with canvases.

Frequently asked questions

How far apart should pictures be on a gallery wall?

Keep the gaps even, usually 5 to 8 cm between pieces.

How high should a gallery wall be?

Aim for the centre of the whole group to sit at about eye level, 145 to 150 cm from the floor.

Can I use one design across several canvases?

Yes. That's a triptych, a single design split across three panels, and it's one of the simplest ways to fill a wide wall.