Twelve layouts, every one measured with a 4 cm gap between frames. Pick the row whose total width is about two-thirds of the furniture underneath, hang the centre of the whole arrangement at 145 cm, and you are done. Two 70×100 side by side spans 144 cm, which is the answer for a standard three-seater sofa.
Start with the furniture, not the wall
Most gallery walls go wrong before a single hole is drilled, because they are planned against the wall rather than against the sofa, sideboard or bed underneath. A wall is 2.4 metres tall and gives you no useful constraint. The furniture does.
Every layout below is sized by one ratio: the group should cover roughly two-thirds of the width of whatever it hangs above, and the poster size guide works through where that ratio comes from and what goes wrong on either side of it.
Work it backwards. Every layout below lists the furniture width it suits, which is the layout width multiplied by 1.5. A 158 cm row of three 50×70 prints wants roughly 237 cm of sideboard under it. On a 180 cm sideboard the target is about 120 cm of artwork instead, so the row you want is layout 9 — five A4 at 121 cm — or layout 8, four A3 at 132 cm, if you want the group to carry a little more weight.
Everything here assumes a 4 cm gap between frames. That is close enough that the group reads as one object rather than a scatter of separate pictures, and it is the spacing all the arithmetic below is built on. Change the gap and every total width changes with it.
The twelve layouts
Sizes are A4 (21 × 30), A3 (30 × 42), 50×70, 70×100 and 100×140 cm. Totals include the 4 cm gaps; they do not include any margin around the group, because there is no such thing as a correct margin — that depends on your wall.
| # | Layout | Total size | Furniture width |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | One 50×70 | 50 × 70 cm | 75 cm |
| 2 | One 70×100 | 70 × 100 cm | 105 cm |
| 3 | One 100×140 | 100 × 140 cm | 150 cm |
| 4 | Two 50×70 side by side | 104 × 70 cm | 156 cm |
| 5 | Two 70×100 side by side | 144 × 100 cm | 216 cm |
| 6 | Three 50×70 in a row | 158 × 70 cm | 237 cm |
| 7 | Three A3 in a row | 98 × 42 cm | 147 cm |
| 8 | Four A3 in a row | 132 × 42 cm | 198 cm |
| 9 | Five A4 in a row | 121 × 30 cm | 182 cm |
| 10 | Two by two grid of A3 | 64 × 88 cm | 96 cm |
| 11 | Three by two grid of A3 | 98 × 88 cm | 147 cm |
| 12 | Two by two grid of 50×70 | 104 × 144 cm | 156 cm |
The twelve layouts, drawn to scale
Every diagram below is drawn to the same scale, so the arrangements can be compared against each other rather than each in isolation. The photographs show the arrangement in a room; the diagrams carry the measurements.
1. One 50×70
Suits a console or desk, about 75 cm wide
2. One 70×100
Suits a small sideboard, about 105 cm wide
3. One 100×140
Suits a large sideboard, about 150 cm wide
4. Two 50×70 side by side
Suits a bed or small sofa, about 156 cm wide
5. Two 70×100 side by side
Suits a three-seater sofa, about 216 cm wide
6. Three 50×70 in a row
Suits a corner sofa or long sideboard, about 237 cm wide
7. Three A3 in a row
Suits a hallway console, about 147 cm wide
8. Four A3 in a row
Suits a corridor wall, about 198 cm wide
9. Five A4 in a row
Suits a console table or radiator, about 182 cm wide
10. Two by two grid of A3
Suits a child’s room, about 96 cm wide
11. Three by two grid of A3
Suits a hallway, about 147 cm wide
12. Two by two grid of 50×70
Suits a bare wall or stairwell — needs 144 cm of clear wall
Best sellers, ready to drop into any layout above
Green HilmaTara Green
Rothko Orange Perspective
Bauhaus Woman 03David Wolf
Tree of Life CollageThomas Nordentoft
Hilma No 02Tara Green
Bauhaus Woman 02David Wolf
Building layout 5? Two of these in 70×100, with a pair of oak frames, spans 144 cm — the row that suits a three-seater. Shop all best sellers →
Which layout suits which room?
Layout 5 — two 70×100 side by side, 144 cm across — is the one to reach for above a standard three-seater sofa. A three-seater is usually 200 to 220 cm wide, two-thirds of that is 133 to 147 cm, and 144 lands almost exactly in the middle. If you take one thing from this guide, take that.
Layout 6, three 50×70 in a row at 158 cm, is the alternative for anything wider than 240 cm — a corner sofa, or a long sideboard on a bare wall.
Layout 12, a two by two grid of 50×70, is the most striking of the twelve and the one people most often underestimate. It is 144 cm tall. That is 144 cm of clear wall above the furniture, which a room with a standard 240 cm ceiling will not always give you. Measure from the top of the furniture to the ceiling before you commit. If it does not fit, layout 10 gives you the same two by two arrangement in A3 and stands only 88 cm tall.
Layouts 7 to 9 are the corridor and staircase layouts — long, low, and narrow enough to work where a deep frame would feel like an obstacle. Five A4 in a row spans 121 cm at only 30 cm tall, which suits a 180 cm console table or the wall above a radiator.
Layouts 1 to 3 are not a cop-out. A single 100×140 above a 150 cm sideboard is a gallery wall of one, and it is the calmest thing you can do to a room. The poster size guide covers the single-piece maths in more detail, including bed widths.
How high do I hang a group?
Centre the whole arrangement at 145 cm from the floor — not the centre of each frame, and not the centre of the top row. Work out the total height of the group, halve it, and that is how far the top edge sits above 145 cm.
Layout 12 is the worked example. It is 144 cm tall, so half is 72 cm. The top edge lands at 145 + 72 = 217 cm and the bottom edge at 145 − 72 = 73 cm. On a 240 cm ceiling that leaves 23 cm of wall above the group, which is tight but liveable. The bottom edge at 73 cm is not the whole constraint, though: the 20 to 25 cm of clearance underneath still has to come out of it, so the furniture below has to be under roughly 50 cm tall.
That clearance is the rule that bends the 145 cm figure. Keep 20 to 25 cm of clear wall beneath the lowest frame, measured up from whatever the group hangs above, and let it win whenever the two numbers disagree — over a tall-backed sofa the group simply belongs higher up the wall.
How do I align frames of different sizes?
Align the centres, not the top edges. This is the single instruction that separates a gallery wall that looks composed from one that looks like a noticeboard.
Put an A3 next to a 50×70 and line up their tops, and the A3 is left hanging with 28 cm of dead wall below it. Line up the horizontal centre line of both frames instead and the mismatch reads as deliberate. The same applies vertically in a mixed column: one common vertical centre line through the group, and the widths can vary as much as you like.
Hang the largest piece first, then build outwards from it. The big frame is the anchor, and every measurement afterwards is taken from it rather than from the wall. Do it the other way round and the errors accumulate towards the middle, where they are most visible.
Can I mix frame colours and finishes?
Up to a point. Oak and black are produced in every size we make; the colour finishes stop at 50×70. So a multi-coloured gallery wall is one built from A4, A3 and 50×70 frames, and anything larger in the group has to be oak or black.
Mixing finishes across one wall does work, but only if one finish stays clearly dominant: five oak and two black, rather than four and three. That is a judgement call rather than a rule, and we will not pretend otherwise — but the failure mode is predictable. An even split reads as indecision.
The grids, layouts 10 to 12, are where we would keep every frame identical. A grid's whole effect comes from repetition, and a second finish spends that repetition on nothing. Rows and mixed-size arrangements are far more forgiving. Browse the frames in one finish first.
How do I do this without drilling twice?
Cut newspaper or wrapping paper to the exact size of each frame, tape it to the wall in the layout you have chosen, and leave it there for a day. Walk past it. Sit on the sofa and look at it. A layout that seems obviously right on a Tuesday afternoon can look 10 cm too high by Wednesday evening with the lamps on, and paper is considerably easier to move than a hole.
Only then measure your hook positions. Mark the paper where each hanging point falls, drill through the mark, tear the paper away, and hang. Our picture hook is the only hanging accessory we sell, and it is what every layout here is hung on.
If you would rather not handle glazing and mounting at all, the framing service sends the prints already framed and ready to hang, which on a twelve-frame grid is a meaningful saving of a Saturday.
Shop the wall
Pick a layout, then buy the three things it needs: the prints, the frames, and hooks to hang them on. Layout 5 is two 70×100 prints and two 70×100 frames in oak or black. Layout 12 is four 50×70 prints and four matching frames.
Shop posters → · Shop frames → · Extra large prints → · Picture hooks →
And if it lands between two layouts, take the larger one. A group that runs slightly big reads as a decision; one that runs slightly small reads as hesitation.