Ombré Picture Wall (& Picture Hanging Tips for the Hesitant!)

Sometimes you have to get a little creative when you have a blank wall!

Eric is usually very easy going when it comes to our home decor (which is great for me) but one thing he DOES care about is what goes on the walls. We’ve lived in 7 places together and I think he’s over all the holes in the walls throughout the years.

I’ve learned to be very careful about my choices for wall decor and I’m sharing my top tips on hanging any wall decor if you (or someone else) is hesitant.

I’ve teamed up with one of my favorite framing sources for this project, Framed & Matted. You may remember my post about our home office reveal where we used a very bold and beautiful mat and frame (it’s still one of my favorite pieces in our home!)

First step

Before hanging almost anything on the walls, I like to cut out the shape of the piece with paper. If it’s a larger piece, you can use wrapping paper. Then, hang the paper on the wall where you think you’ll like it placed.

For me, I like to do this for 2 reasons:

• I like to step back and see how the paper will work with the wall space (it’s much easier to move around a piece of paper to change placement than a picture already hung!)
• It takes Eric a bit to get used to having something new on the wall so this eases him into it. I usually leave the paper up for a few days before adding anything permanent now.

Pro tip: I highly recommend using the green painters tape, Frog Tape,to adhere your paper to the wall. This is the best tape to prevent any damage to your walls.

Below is a photo to show how I hung the paper initially (the only one I could find on my phone!). This is what it looked like before I tweaked the placement and finalized sizing. You can choose your EXACT frame size and mat size with Framed & Matted!

Hanging Tips

For this project, I used these Command Strips vs nails so they won’t damage the walls if I do decide to move them. The large velcro command strips are my go-to’s because they can hold up to 16 pounds AND since they are Velcro, you can easily adjust your piece in case it’s a little crooked.

If you’re using nails to hang your piece, I have another trick that has proved to be helpful…

Before You Hammer….

Take a piece of paper and line it up with the hardware on the back of the frame (sawtooth hooks, triangle hooks, etc) .With a pencil, mark on the paper where the nail(s) will go.

Then tape the paper to wall and hammer the nail(s) right over the piece of paper on your marks. Kind of like you are hammering the paper to the wall but don’t worry, the paper will come off easily. This helps tremendously when you are using more than one nail to hang a small or medium sized piece.

I’ve had a lot of trial and error when it comes to hanging things so I hope what I’ve learned helps you!

When I started this project, I had intended to hang three decorative square mirrors. After putting the paper up though, I wasn’t loving it. I decided to put something more personal on this wall, something special. And I liked the idea of having three pieces to fill the long narrow space (rule of thirds). So, of course photos of my three girls would be a perfect choice for us.

Some other ideas for a trio of artwork or pictures to have framed:

• For the traveler: Photos of top 3 favorite places (mix them up! ie: beach, architecture, even framing ticket stubs or hotel keys, etc.)
• For a married couple: when you first met, a wedding photo and a recent one
• Nature photos are always a good idea! Think abstract or landscape pictures. I’ve loved seeing a trio of leaf photos lately. Flower photos are great too.
• If you don’ want to use your own pictures, Etsy is a great place to find affordable and creative prints.
• After posting a peek on Instagram, I had a couple people comment on cute this ombré picture wall would be in a nursery too!

Our picture wall trio is hung vertically but it would work horizontally too (ie: over a bed, sofa, etc). I also lean towards white for home decor (you probably know this if you’ve seen our living room lately). White is a classic, crisp color and easy to work with.

I reached out to Framed & Matted because I love their frames. They asked if I would be open to using a bold mat (they are known for their strong variety of options) and I’m so glad that the challenged me to use more color!

I thought a lot about it and could not pick just ONE color since they have so many gorgeous options.

So I choose three that work well together to form an ombre effect. Having samples of the actual swatches really helped here because you can easily see how the colors work together.

PS. Ombre is one of the top home decor trends and you can easily recreate this lol in just about any color scheme.

The mats I choose are Soft Sky, Powder Blue and Antique Blue. They also have the White Ice as the inner mat. Adding that extra layer with an inner mat makes the piece look nicer. I also like that it matches the frame 🙂 The picture frame is called the ADDISON (in white, 75″ width).

Now that our ombre picture wall is up, I am SO glad we went with color. I feel like our space really needed it and created a beautiful and interesting statement. I wish I videoed the girls throwing out their “model moves” for this project! Think glamour shot poses and crazy elbows.

Also, the kids LOVE seeing their picture on the wall and sitting in this chair. The chair was Taylor’s find at a resale shop and it’s their favorite seat in the house!

Symmetrical picture walls is also another trend that I love. My next project is trying to convince Eric we need a set of 9 in our bedroom!!

Better get that wrapping paper out now…..

*This post is a sponsored post by Framed and Matted but as always, all my opinions are my own! Affiliate links may also be used. This means I get a small percentage if purchased by no additional cost to you! Thanks for reading and supporting Shining on Design!