Replace Galleries with Collage Concepts

One of the easiest ways to bring power and impact to your wall art is the traditional gallery wall. A wall filled with framed photos arranged in a carefully artistic way is a great way to add instant drama to any room. It draws the eye and tells a great story all at once – which is the fundamental purpose of wall art in interior design.

In the modern age, though, a traditional gallery wall installation can feel a bit old-fashioned or classic. If classic is what you’re looking for, that’s all well and good, but if what you’re after is a more modern and creative approach, we have two words for you: Collage concepts.

The Power of Collage

Collage can be an effective replacement for the gallery wall because it brings the same fundamentals: Drama and a focal point. It combines multiple images in the same way that a gallery wall does, but in a more modern, freer method that allows you to bring in more of your personal style. If you want a classic, formal look to your room, a gallery wall is the ideal choice. If you want something more funky and modern, looser and more casual, a collage is the right way to go.

Collage is powerful because it combines the freedom of children’s art time with the perspective and mature eye of the adult, achieving innocence and fun and sophistication all at once. It’s also a very flexible design approach: There are a couple of different approaches to collage that can bring serious impact to any room.

The Gallery Collage

One of our collage concepts is to use overlapping images.

If collage is a bit scary, split the difference and create a Gallery Collage. This means using the traditional and classic photos you would in any gallery wall, but use smaller images and arrange them in an overlapping, 3D-inspired arrangement that mimics the traditional look and feel of a collage with cut-out photos.

The Meta Collage

One of the most powerful collage concepts you can use involves creating many separate collages which are then arranged onto a gallery wall in a collage style. The end result is a collage of collages, which adds depth and layers to your wall installation that go beyond either approach.

The Free-standing Shelf Collage

Go three-dimensional! A few floating shelves on the wall and a few dozen photos make for an arresting wall installation. By arranging the photos at different depths, overlapping each other, you can create a literal collage that pokes out into the horizontal space, popping out from the wall and inviting guests to reach out and touch your photos.

There are as many ways to decorate a room as there are rooms in the world. Photos are one of the most durable and flexible ideas out there – but even they get trapped in the glass case of the past sometimes. When a gallery wall and other traditional approaches seem boring, try out a collage approach – and when you’ve selected your photos for it, click here and let us be your partner in collage.