How to Create a Picture Collage

Picture collages are a fun way to decorate a large wall space. In a collage, you don’t have to pick just one picture, instead you get to pick a bunch of your favorites to show off all at once. The thing is, if they aren’t done correctly, picture collages can look chaotic and messy on a wall. Once you learn these tips on how to hang a picture collage, you can be confident that your picture collage will make your walls look amazing.

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Picture Collage Tip #1: Pick Your Wall

The first step in learning how to hang a picture collage is choosing your wall. The wall, and even the room, where the collage lives in makes all the difference in how the picture collage will fit into your space. Pick a room for your collage that is open and bright. You want there to be lots of space that people can stand back and enjoy the collage, as well as the ability to come up close and look at each individual photo.

It’s for this reason that I don’t recommend putting picture collages in hallways or in enclosed stairwells. When there is another wall 4 feet away from the collage, the only view of the collage you get is a close-up of the individual pictures. That way, you’ll miss out on the larger view of the collage itself. Give your picture collage adequate space to breathe by putting it in an actual room.

To pick a wall for your picture collage, look for a space that is between 6 and 8 feet wide. This will give you enough space to get frames of varying sizes to fit without them feeling squished. If you’replanning 0n including pictures with people and other small, personal images, you want your guests to be able to walk up and view these pictures from very close range. These collages should not be hung above big, bulky furniture, like a couch, because viewers will naturally want to get closer to the pictures. Save them the awkwardness of climbing on your furniture and put collages above console tables or low bookcases. If you are looking to fill a space over a couch, consider using large images that your guests can enjoy from afar.

Picture Collage Tip #2: Plan the Images

Now that you have your wall picked out, it’s time to plan your collage…

And by plan, I mean to literally measure and draw it out on paper. If you are the super detailed type, you can draw every frame perfectly to scale, but it’s not completely necessary. The main goal of drawing this out is to start to get an idea of how many, and which size frames you want to have in your collage. As long as the boxes you draw as frames are somewhat proportional to the wall space, you can start to get a count for how many frames you need for your project.

Picture Collage Tip #3: Pick Similar Frames

When creating a picture collage, the thing to remember is that you don’t need every frame to be the same. That being said, a picture collage can look pretty darn cool if you have identical frames with similar pictures in them, but this is best for pictures of nature, not people. If you want to make a perfectly symmetrical picture collage with identical frames, consider using photographs, yours or purchased ones, that are of a single item from nature, like a flower or tree. When each picture has one focal point, it will allow your guests’ eyes to focus on the order and symmetry of the display.

If you want to create a picture collage depicting people, I would suggest choosing frames that are similar, but not identical. They could all be the same color, but different sizes. Or, they could be the same color with different thicknesses to the frames. Or, you could pick ones that are different colors, but have a similar theme, like varying shades of a single color.

If you want to create a picture collage depicting people, choose frames that are similar, but not identical. 

The goal is to make the frames appear like they are one piece of art, so consistency and similarity in the frames is your first step to achieving a cohesive look. I would also suggest buying a few extra frames just in case you want to rearrange a few things from your original plan. A picture collage can look one way on paper, but once you get the frames arranged, you may find that you want it to look a little different on the wall.

Picture Collage Tip #4: Arrange the Frames on the Floor

Once you have the frames, now is the time to start playing around with their arrangement. On the floor directly below the wall where you want to hang them, start arranging the frames how you think you want them to hang. If you do this on the floor below the wall, it will help keep your arrangement in the space confines of the wall. Here you can play around, moving pieces of your collage puzzle until you get the right arrangement for your space. Once you have it perfected, you can move on to the tricky part of getting it to stay the same when you hang it on the wall.

Picture Collage Tip #5: Use Paper Squares to Plot Your Picture Collage

Getting your perfectly arranged picture collage from the floor to the wall is the trickiest part of the entire process. This next step may seem like an extra, unnecessary step, but it will help to keep you from making simple errors when putting up your collage. Using newspaper, kraft paper, or even wrapping paper, cut pieces of paper in the exact size of each frame. Also mark on each piece of paper where the hangers for each frame are by poking a hole with a pushpin. This will show you where your nail or picture hanger needs to go. Then, once all your paper squares are ready, start arranging them with removable tape onto the wall using your model on the floor as reference. Once you have all the squares up on the wall, you can see if any are crooked, off-center, or out of line. Adjust the paper pieces until they are exactly how you want them.

Once your paper frames are exactly how you want them, it’s time to put the nails in the wall. Using the small holes that you created in the paper, put a nail into the wall where the picture will be hung. When you do this correctly, you will have a perfectly placed nail that will hang a level, perfectly placed picture in your collage. Continue to do with each of the paper frames until all the nails are installed.

Now that you have followed these steps, the only thing left to do is put the pictures in each frame, hang each frame on the appropriate nails, and enjoy your brand new picture collage.

Have you installed a picture collage of your own? How did it go? I would love to hear about your successes and struggles in the comment section below.

Until next time, I’m the Domestic CEO, helping you love your home.