I get it, you love that family portrait session with everyone smiling at the camera and you want to use every photo from it for your entire gallery wall. But here’s a gentle nudge that the best family photo walls are made up of lots of candid moments and memories and places too. And honestly, the more candid the photo, the more of a conversation-starter it is!
In our dining room, I uploaded all my selected photos to Framebridge and chose the “The Even Bigger Staggered Grid” gallery wall. They printed, framed, and shipped the whole wall with a template on where to put every nail. It was blissfully easy, and I love the collected look of different frame styles in the same gilded metallic.
If you’re hoping to put together a wall of family photos, here are my five tips for displaying a cohesive collection:
1. Mix It Up
Frames (similar)
Don’t use all photos from the same shoot. Variety = personality. When we first moved into our CLJ Studio, we pulled together photos of our team on different occasions—from more posed “professional” photos to casual team retreat photos—to make the space feel more like home.
2. Real > Posed
Use candids to tell a story! It’s so much better to include some natural poses and not just smiles at the camera. They can capture the feeling of being in that moment, not just what it looked like. These are the pictures that always bring a smile to my face when I look at them.
3. Go Monochrome
The Even Bigger Staggered Grid
For a timeless, cohesive look, I choose to go with all black & white photos. That way even if the lighting is different between scenes or my camera phone evolved into a higher quality color rendering over the years, you can’t tell. It all feels classic. And you can more easily mix in historical photos of your ancestors as well!
4. Not Everyone In Every Pic
It’s OK if not every pic shows the whole family. Add a photo of just your kids. Or just you and your significant other. Mix in a frame where dad is with one kid. Maybe you include an antique print of your grandma. Or the pup gets center stage. It helps make the wall feel less dense if it’s not filled to the brim with people in every frame. This also changes the scale nicely, so that some photos are wide-angle, and some are portrait-style.
5. Display in Shared Spaces
The Portrait Grid (good inspiration!)
The best place to put family photos is in places that are social areas. Dining rooms are a great choice, because they can be conversation starters. Stairwells are one of the first places I ever did a photo gallery wall, because you can cover a lot of ground. Hallways are also great because it can feel like you’re telling a story as you walk through.
I’ve mentioned this before, but I don’t like to see family photos in the bathroom or bedroom. It’s just a “no” for me. I want my bedroom to be a serene retreat, and that means fewer pieces on the wall or on my nightstand in general. So frame up your favorite family photos and put them on display in more public spaces for others to enjoy too!
If you’re looking to create your own gallery wall I’ve saved all of my favorite options for art, frames, and other wall decor at the CLJ Shop!
