Oh, we know. Painting your own art sounds way too intimidating, particularly for people who don’t consider themselves artistically inclined. But painting your own cohesive gallery wall actually isn’t as hard as you might think. Sure, you probably won’t be composing the Mona Lisa anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t create something beautiful and special for your home. Read on to learn more tips and tricks for painting your own gallery wall art. “Try to match the type of frame you use, or match the type of mat you use in wildly different frames. This brings any eclectic look together,” says artist Kyra Kendall. “If you’re handy, you can precisely measure out the size of mat you need for your frames and get mats cut professionally to put in your frames you already have. It saves you money but will make your wall look professional.” (For painting novices, the mat is the border around the painting that separates it from the frame. This applies more to watercolor paintings that are on paper and need to be framed, rather than acrylic paintings that typically go on stretched canvases, which don’t have to be framed.) The placement of each painting really has an effect on the wall and overall room. Brown notes Pinterest’s “gallery wall placement” search page, as well as the addition of other wall decor elements to play off of the actual paintings. “We are seeing a specific rise in searches for creative art ideas like these more minimalist ’triangle wall paint’ with 12 times more searches, and ‘accent wall dots’ with over 14 times more searches,” she says. However, you can make pencil sketches work under your watercolor paintings as well. Kendall’s personal style uses her pencil sketches to create definition and dimension throughout the colored paintings. She adds, “For a wall, watercolor is nice because generally they draw people in. Since they are usually smaller than other painting mediums, it makes the viewer come up close for a good look.” “Nothing is wrong,” Kendall says. “If there are two things on your wall that can’t seem to play nice together, think of it as a challenge to find the third piece that will bring the two adversaries together. I remember reading once that a secret to a happy life is to have a collection. Any collection. So look at your gallery wall as that. If you want to begin with a theme then go for it. Or just start displaying things you like, and I bet a theme will emerge. You might even discover things about your tastes and style in the journey.”
