I'm an interior designer – how to create a gallery wall without it looking tacky – people always make the same mistakes

GALLERY walls can look really chic – if they're done right.

One wrong move and you could be left with a mish-mash of tacky prints in ugly frames.

Luckily, Interiors expert Nick Lewis revealed the dos and don'ts of gallery walls.

He said: "Gallery walls can be super tricky, on one hand they can look too busy, too funky and tend to clutter and overcrowd the space, but if you go too minimal that can look really out of place."

Plan your layout

The interiors whizz said to think about the bigger picture when you plan your wall.

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While individual prints and pictures are important, the whole idea of a gallery wall is how good they look together.

He said: "Don't just start putting things on the wall, map everything out including the spacing between the different objects."

Don't overcrowd

Size, shape and scale are the most important thing to consider, according to Nick.

If you've got a larger wall, lots of small pieces of art will look weird, so go with a few larger pieces.

When it comes to overcrowding, Nick says: "Leave some breathing space around your wall, don't have the edge of your gallery wall against the edge of the wall you've selected."

Consider the rest of the room

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A gallery wall works best when it's used to tie the entire room together.

Nick explained that because gallery walls can often look busy, one option is to use the same frame so that the finished project looks less overwhelming in the room as a whole.

If you have a gold lamp, you can tie it in with a gold frame, or a wooden frame to go with a wooden stool – whatever will make the room look more cohesive.

Don't hang your wall too high

Nick said: "Consider the gallery wall as one unit, you're considering the whole piece together so if you're hanging it way too high it's going to look silly and weird."

If you want to hang your gallery wall above your sofa or headboard or sideboard, five to eight inches should be more than enough.

Add different textures

"You don't have to just stick to plain picture frames," Nick said.

If you want to get more experimental you can incorporate different styles of frames like wood, metal and even macrame.

You don't have to stick to pictures and art either, you can incorporate clocks and hanging plants to you wall to add dimension.

Don't use all generic art

That's right – put the 'live, laugh, love' sign down.

Nick explained that the whole idea of a gallery wall is to let your personality shine and having the same boring prints as everyone else defeats the point, plus they can look tacky.

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Include photos of friends of family, postcards from holidays, art work that has meaning to you, and if you want some word art add one quote that's meaningful to you.

"Just don't overload it with generic art, it doesn't look good, and skip the Ikea prints."

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