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    How To Determine Canvas Sizes For A Wall

    April 26, 2017 by Ashley Mayes 18 Comments

    It's Week 4 of the One Room Challenge! I can't believe how fast it's going by. Well, I can but I can't. It's always a rush to get it all done. Every single time I do this challenge, at this point, I always tell Luke to tell me that I'm not doing the challenge the next time around. It's always incredibly stressful. I usually always give in and do it though so I must like being a crazy person. Anyways, if you have no idea what I'm talking about. The One Room Challenge is hosted by Calling It Home and happens twice a year. It's a six week challenge where designers and bloggers come together to challenge each other to complete a room.

    If you need to play catch-up on my One Room Challenge progress, then make sure to check out:

    Week 1 - Entryway | Week 2 - Design Plan | Week 3 - Saying Goodbye to the Scrolls

    I've alluded to the fact that our entryway makeover is continuing up the stairs to the loft space. The loft space wasn't featured in the design plan, but it's getting a facelift as well. Today, I'm chatting about that space and, specifically, How to Determine Canvas Sizes For A Wall. 

    I get lots of questions about art sizing, photo sizing, etc. so hopefully you all will find this helpful. This is just how I do things and there are probably more exact ways to help you determine photo wall arrangements and sizes, but I find this method to work.

    Mid-Century Eclectic Modern and Bright Living Room

    When you go print pictures or buy frames or purchase canvases, it's an investment. A lot of times, I think we just pick 8x10's or 11X14's because that seems to be a larger size and one that most can afford. But, in reality, that size usually looks small on a wall.

    Before we get right to the tutorial, let's look at my gallery wall in the living room. I added frame sizes so that you could see examples of larger sizes.

    Helpful Gallery Wall Size Guide

    When you walk in, the wall arrangement (even though I'm tired of it) does look to-scale in the room.

    Mid-Century Eclectic Modern and Bright Living Room

    Does the wall boast larger frames than you would have thought? Did you notice that the smallest size was an 11x17 wood frame?

    Ok, let's go look at a blank wall and how to get started.

    For size reference, this wall that I'm focusing on is just over 7ft wide and is a hair shorter than 8ft high. The ceiling does slope up, but the wall size is around 8ft.

    I like to use painter's tape to give me an idea on sizing. You can do this too! If you have a space that you want to focus on, grab some painter's tape and tape up a frame size that you think is the right size. Leave it up for a few days and let your eye get used to it. Does it seem too small? Take it down and put it back up bigger. I do this all the time! It totally works.

    Ok, here's my wall and what an 8x10 would look like on it.

    How To Determine Canvas Sizes For A Wall

    Way too small. My eye would wander without really getting captured by anything.

    How To Determine Canvas Sizes For A Wall

    Same thing (in my opinion) with the 11x14 and the 16x20.

    How To Determine Canvas Sizes For A Wall

    The 18x24, though, looks good.

    How To Determine Canvas Sizes For A Wall

    How did I get to that size, you are going to ask, right?! Well, I taped off a box where I wanted my gallery wall to hang. I knew I wanted some vertical canvases and some horizontal. I decided four vertical canvases and two horizontal canvases would be good.

    I wanted two rows, so I divided the inside of my square in half to give me the dimensions of each row. I have a little play on all sides as well.

    I wanted around three inches between each canvas so I subtracted the inches from my  square space to arrive at my canvas sizing.

    My vertical pieces are 18x24 and my horizontal pieces are 32x24.

    This is where I ended up:

    How To Determine Canvas Sizes For A Wall

    CanvasPop is a sponsor of Bigger Than The Three Of Us for the One Room Challenge. They provided me with the canvases; but seriously, you should go over and order some! Working with them was super easy, they arrived fast, look great and even provided hardware for hanging. Gotta love a company who goes the extra mile!

    I still have to paint the walls so I didn't use a level to make sure everything was just perfect but it looks pretty good to my eye.

    PIN:
    How To Determine Canvas Sizes For A Wall

    Now, that I've chatted about how I determine canvas sizes for a wall, let's go ahead and talk about what I find to work best for determining which photos to print.

    I use Lightroom to organize my photos, but no matter what software you use, you can still use this method to help you determine if you like your arrangement. So, first things first, I decide what my top photos are. Which one's are my favorites? Which one's are potential photos to have printed?

    Here's an example of my favorites:

    Need Help Deciding on Canvas Sizes for your gallery wall? Use this post to help!

    Once, I have my favorites picked, I screen shot (for a mac, this is shift-command-4) a few of them. I start arranging them on my desktop screen how it would look on my wall.

    *You could do this same method but use 4x6 prints if that would be more convenient for you.

    How To Determine Canvas Sizes For A Wall

    When I am arranging them, I'm paying attention to scale and colors.

    How To Determine Canvas Sizes For A Wall

    After swapping  a few images in and out, I finally land on an arrangement that I like:

    How To Determine Canvas Sizes For A Wall

    It may not go up on the wall exactly like this, but to my eye, it looks balanced.

    All in all, the screenshots and arranging probably took me ten minutes. I find this method to be the easiest for me.

    So, did this help you? At a minimum, before you order anything next time... grab some tape and tape it up on the wall with the dimensions that you are thinking about. It's so easy to do and I really think it helps nail down what size to get.

    *All images are from our Spain trip. We booked a session with Carolina Sainz and it was amazing.

    Amazing Sponsors for the One Room Challenge

    Canvas Pop | Nostalgic Warehouse | Framebridge | St. Frank | Metrie 

    PIN FOR LATER:
    How To Determine Canvas Sizes For A Wall

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    About Ashley Mayes

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    1. Cassie Bustamante

      April 26, 2017 at 9:31 am

      love your new photos and the gallery!!

      Reply
    2. Morgan

      April 26, 2017 at 10:07 am

      what awesome advice! thanks for sharing.

      Reply
    3. Tee @ Beauteeful Living

      April 26, 2017 at 10:53 am

      Your photos came out so gorgeous! Great tutorial by the way!

      Reply
    4. Brit | House Updated

      April 26, 2017 at 1:52 pm

      Such amazing pictures of your family! And to have them done in Spain, so awesome!

      Reply
    5. Ariel

      April 26, 2017 at 4:38 pm

      They look great in situ! I appreciated having the other images to scale, nice touch!

      Reply
    6. Kristen

      April 26, 2017 at 8:17 pm

      I like seeing how you came up with your pattern for the wall and what photos to choose. Good idea!

      Reply
    7. Sarah

      April 27, 2017 at 6:03 am

      Great advice!! I know I'm scared to go over the 8x10 size but you're right, for a big wall like that the bigger sizes fit perfectly. Love how your gallery wall looks!

      Reply
    8. Emy

      April 27, 2017 at 7:56 am

      Great advice for picking the right sized art! I probably would have crammed 25 8x10's in there. 😉

      Reply
    9. Bre

      April 27, 2017 at 8:05 am

      These family photos are the cutest! Love how this wall is turning out!

      Reply
    10. Carrie

      April 27, 2017 at 8:56 am

      Great tips and I love the photos!

      Reply
    11. Lindi

      May 01, 2017 at 4:14 pm

      This method is genius and amazing! lol. LOVE what you came up with. Taking screenshots and playing around on my mac is exactly what I do, lol. I definitely need to up my gallery wall game with some big pieces!

      Reply
    12. Brittany Goldwyn

      May 02, 2017 at 9:46 am

      Love the new photos, and these are some great tips! I struggle with scale.

      Reply
    13. Diane

      November 09, 2017 at 7:29 am

      I love the wall treatment, but was intrigued by the floor. Does it just drop off to the stairs below ?

      Reply
      • Ashley Mayes

        November 09, 2017 at 9:57 am

        It's a circle staircase that goes down. =) Thanks for stopping by!

        Reply
    14. Tracy

      November 14, 2019 at 11:18 pm

      I see you used 4 of 18x24 photos on the loft wall. What is the larger size photo dimensions?
      Also, where do you get your photos printed ,and is it a special name for that?

      Reply
      • Ashley Mayes

        January 06, 2020 at 9:55 am

        24x32 and CanvasPop.

        Reply

    Trackbacks

    1. Gallery Wall Tutorials from 10 Experts · Castle Revival says:
      February 2, 2018 at 10:39 pm

      […] Ashley from Bigger Than the Three of Us – a gorgeous hallway travel gallery. It’s safe for this high traffic area and its modern simplicity makes a dramatic statement. Ashley also has a link on her post demonstrating how to cut the mat yourself to save on costs. You also don’t want to miss this extra post she included on how important it is to GO LARGER THAN YOU THINK YOU SHOULD WITH PICTURE SIZES. […]

      Reply
    2. Wall Art For Your Home - Bigger Than the Three of Us says:
      June 29, 2019 at 12:43 pm

      […] really works great when you are trying to hang a gallery wall too. I did a post a few years ago on how to determine canvas sizing for your wall. If you usually try to hang an 8×10 or 11×14 on your wall and wonder why it looks small, […]

      Reply

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