LayoutWise

Gallery Wall & Floating Shelf Planner

Lay out a grid of frames or a set of floating shelves on your wall, drawn to scale. You get the exact spot for every nail, or the studs every shelf crosses.

Your wall

1. What are you hanging?
Wall width
ft
in
2. Frames

Group width

53"

42 1/2" tall

Center height

4' 9"

57" eye level

Start left at

3' 9 1/2"

from the wall's left end

Nails

6

marked below

Wall elevation

Teal dots are nail positions

Nails (from the floor and from the wall's left end): 53 1/2" across, 76 1/4" up; 72" across, 76 1/4" up; 90 1/2" across, 76 1/4" up; 53 1/2" across, 53 3/4" up; 72" across, 53 3/4" up; 90 1/2" across, 53 3/4" up. The yellow line is 57" eye level.

Shopping list

  • ✓Picture hangers: 6 rated for each frame's weight (two per frame over 16" wide)
  • ✓Painter’s tape and kraft paper for life-size templates
  • ✓A 2 1/2" spacer block cut from cardboard, a level and a pencil

Measure the hanger drop on each frame — sawtooth hangers and wire sit at different depths.

How high to hang a gallery wall

Treat the whole group as one picture and put its center at 57 inches from the floor — the eye-level line galleries use. Over a sofa or console, hang the bottom row about 8 inches above the furniture instead, and keep the group about two-thirds as wide as the piece below it.

How far apart should frames be?

Keep 2 to 3 inches between frames, and use the same gap everywhere. Tighter than about 1 1/2 inches looks crowded; wider than 4 inches and the frames stop reading as one group. A spacer block cut to the gap makes it easy to keep consistent.

Example: six 16" x 20" frames in a 3 x 2 grid with 2 1/2" gaps make a group 53" wide and 42 1/2" tall. Centered on a 12-foot wall at eye level, the left edge starts 45 1/2" in, the bottom sits 35 3/4" off the floor, and with hangers 2" below the frame tops, the first nail goes 53 1/2" across and 76 1/4" up.

Nails and hangers

Measure from the top of each frame to its hanger (the wire pulled tight, or the sawtooth), and set the nail that far below where the frame top should be. Frames wider than about 16 inches hang better on two nails so they stay level.

Floating shelves

Space shelves 12–16 inches apart for books and decor. Studs are usually 16 inches on center; a shelf that crosses two studs can carry real weight, while one that misses needs heavy-duty anchors rated for the load. Find the first stud with a stud finder and the planner shows which ones each shelf hits.

Sources