Determine your style. Love lithographs? Fancy foxes? A gallery wall is your opportunity to style your home to reflect your passions and interests. Galleries can be tied together by theme, frame color, style or image palette. Tip: In a busy room with lots of patterns and textures, the key is to stick to a single hue, perhaps adding small splashes of color into the mix
Make a dramatic landing. Staircases are often overlooked when it comes to decorating, and what a pity — they’re one of the highest-traffic areas in the home. Create a gallery that draws in the eye by staggering work along the staircase wall. Keep the center of your gallery near the 59-inch (150-centimeter) height, and allow 10 inches (25 centimeters) from each stair to avoid damage when vacuuming. Offsetting a gallery wall with a lone, larger artwork — as seen here, with the big typography piece at the far end — is a great way to add extra punch to a space.
Build a grid. Gone are the days when a single statement piece of art above furniture was the norm. We love this grid pattern set above a chest of drawers. Certain artwork, including pieces in a series, geometric works or other minimal lines look best in a grid. Smaller works in a series are particularly nice in this format.
Or keep lines sharp. Creating a sharp boundary above a piece of furniture can open up the room and, in some cases, limit potential damage to art. Try to keep your gallery wall at least 12 inches (30 centimeters) above furniture. We love this gallery wall, whose tones balance the room perfectly while providing the perfect pop of color through a single orange artwork.
Removing light tarnish. To remove light tarnish, Herman recommends starting with a nonabrasive cleaner, such as diluted Dawn dishwashing liquid (phosphate-free, not lemon-scented), Purell original formula hand sanitizer, Method Glass + Surface Cleaner or Windex Vinegar Multi-Surface Cleaner. In fact, periodic washing of silver with nonabrasive cleaners will delay the onset of tarnish altogether, and you might be able to avoid using abrasive polishes. Tarnish is much easier to remove before it has had a chance to build up. “Your silver will show less wear, as it will be exposed to less abrasion than if you wait for more tarnish to form,” Herman says. He suggests applying hand sanitizer with a soft cotton ball on the silver first, since it is the least abrasive of all the silver cleaning methods. “If the hand sanitizer leaves a residue, rinse it off with warm water or remove it with a moistened cotton towel, then dry immediately to avoid spotting,” he says.
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