Last updated September 25, 2026
To hang a gallery wall of travel posters, choose prints in one style and one frame, pick a layout that fits the wall, lay it out on the floor, tape paper templates to the wall at a centre height of 57–60 inches, then hang from the middle outward with 2–3 inch gaps. Five steps, two hours, no filled holes.
What you need before you start
A gallery wall fails for two reasons: the prints do not belong together, or the holes were drilled before anyone measured. Both are fixed before the first nail goes in. Here is the kit, and it fits in one drawer.
- A tape measure, a pencil and a 24-inch (60 cm) spirit level, or the level app on your phone.
- Kraft paper or newspaper, scissors and low-tack painter's tape, for the templates.
- Picture hooks rated above the frame weight: a framed 12" x 18" paper print in a thin oak frame with glass weighs about 2–3 lb (1–1.5 kg); a 24" x 16" framed canvas about 4–5 lb (2 kg).
- Two hooks per frame for anything wider than 16 inches (40 cm), so it cannot tilt.
- The prints themselves, already framed. Our travel posters print on archival matte paper in 13 vertical sizes from 8" x 12" ($26), and our gallery wall ideas page has ready-made sets built for exactly this job.
Step 1: Choose the prints — one style, one frame, one trip
The wall reads as a set when the prints share two of three things: the illustration style, the frame, and the subject. Our travel posters make this easy because they are drawn as one series, flat vector illustration with the city name in wide-tracked uppercase and the country beneath, all in the same portrait 2:3 shape. Three of them in the same oak frame look like a set before you have hung a single one.
Start with a trip. Three cities from one journey is the strongest gallery wall you can build, because everyone who visits will ask about it. The Lisbon print puts three yellow trams on a steep street between azulejo-tiled facades; Venice is the softest palette in the series, dusty coral and cream palazzi over jade water; Rome crops the Colosseum so tight that its arches run off three edges, in coral and one deep petrol blue. Hang them in the order you travelled.
For an American trip, the USA series is drawn the same way. The Statue of Liberty print is seen from the water on the approach, verdigris and gold torch flame over a cobalt harbour, and the Golden Gate Bridge is drawn from the sand at the south end of the strait, vermilion span over teal water and black rocks. Coast to coast on one wall, in the same frame, is a gallery wall with a story. Browse the rest of the series in travel wall art.
Step 2: Pick a layout and measure it
Choose the layout from the wall, not from the prints. Measure the wall's width and the height of whatever sits under it, then read the table. All widths below assume a thin frame that adds about 1 inch (2.5 cm) to each side of the paper size and a 3-inch (7.5 cm) gap between frames.
| Layout | Print size | Wall space it covers (approx.) | Best for | Paper from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 in a row | 12" x 18" (30 x 46 cm) | 48" x 20" (122 x 51 cm) | Above a sofa 72–84" wide, a sideboard, a bed | $33 each · $89.10 for three with 10% off |
| 2 x 2 grid | 12" x 18" | 31" x 43" (79 x 109 cm) | Narrow wall beside a door, a stair landing | $33 each |
| 3 x 2 grid | 12" x 18" | 48" x 43" (122 x 109 cm) | Dining room wall, the long wall of a hallway | $33 each |
| 3 x 3 grid | 8" x 12" (20 x 30 cm) | 36" x 48" (91 x 122 cm) | Home office, a wall you see from a desk | $26 each |
| 1 horizontal + 2 vertical | 24" x 16" centre, 12" x 18" sides | 60" x 20" (152 x 51 cm) | A wide sofa wall, a mantel, a headboard | $40 + $33 + $33 |
| Salon: 5–7 mixed | 8" x 12" to 16" x 24" | About 60" x 48" (152 x 122 cm) | A stairwell or the wall behind a reading chair | $26–$40 each |
Two numbers to write on the wall in pencil. First, the centre line: the middle of the whole group sits 57–60 inches (145–152 cm) from the floor, which is where galleries hang work so it meets a standing adult's eye. Second, the furniture gap: above a sofa, a bed or a sideboard, forget the centre line and leave 6–10 inches (15–25 cm) between the top of the furniture and the bottom of the lowest frame, so the wall and the furniture read as one object. The full hanging-height tables are in our size guide.
Horizontal prints change the maths. Our park panoramics are 3:2, so a 24" x 16" horizontal is as wide as two vertical 12" x 18" prints side by side. One of them in the middle of a sofa wall, with a vertical each side, fills 60 inches without a fourth frame.
Step 3: Lay it out on the floor, then on the wall in paper
- On the floor first. Mark the wall's width on the floor with tape and arrange the framed prints inside it. Move them until the gaps are equal and the colours alternate, warm beside cool: the brick red and teal of the Amsterdam canal next to the duck-egg sky of London, the mosaic bench of Barcelona at the end where it can be loud.
- Trace each frame onto paper. Cut a kraft-paper template per frame and mark on it where the hook will sit: measure from the top of the frame down to the taut wire, or to the sawtooth hanger, and put a cross there.
- Tape the templates to the wall. Start with the centre template on your 57–60 inch line, then work outward using a 3-inch (7.5 cm) offcut of card as the spacer. Step back to the doorway and look. This is the moment to move things, and painter's tape leaves no mark.
- Level the row, not each frame. Lay the spirit level across the tops of a whole row of templates. If the floor slopes, and most do, level to the ceiling line or the top of the sofa instead, because that is what the eye compares against.
Step 4: Hang from the centre outward
Hang the middle frame first and check it against the level. Then hammer through the cross on each remaining template in turn, tear the paper away, and hang. Working outward from the centre means an error at the edge is an error in one frame, not in the whole row. The Smithsonian's Museum Conservation Institute recommends driving hooks into the wall studs where you can, using two eye screws and a double strand of wire on the frame, and checking the hardware now and then because hooks come out of plaster and wire wears (Museum Conservation Institute, Caring for Your Paintings).
Three hardware rules that save the wall. Under 5 lb (2 kg), a single brass picture hook with its angled pin is enough in drywall or plaster and leaves a hole you can hide with a fingertip of filler. Wider than 16 inches, use two hooks 8–10 inches apart so the frame cannot swing. For a rented flat, adhesive strips rated for the weight work on painted drywall, but hang the frame from two strips, top corners, and give the adhesive the hour the packet asks for.
If a frame refuses to hang straight, the wire is the problem, not the wall. Shorten it so the top of the wire sits 2–3 inches below the top of the frame; a slack wire lets the print tip forward and casts a shadow on the wall. A small rubber bumper on each bottom corner keeps the frame off the paint and stops it drifting when the door slams.
Step 5: Light, glass and the walls to avoid
Paper fades. The Northeast Document Conservation Center puts it plainly: light damage to paper is cumulative and irreversible, direct sunlight is not recommended, and even a print taken down and stored in the dark will not recover its colour (NEDCC, Protection from Light Damage). For a home that means one rule: hang the gallery wall on the wall the sun does not reach at noon. Opposite the window is fine; beside the window, facing it, is the wall that pays.
Glass or acrylic with UV filtering costs a few dollars more per frame and is worth it for anything you paid to have framed. Matte canvas has no glass at all, so there is no glare from a lamp, which is why the oil-painting and watercolor park prints suit a living room with one window and a lot of lamplight. The same conservation advice keeps prints away from a fireplace, a radiator and a bathroom without an extractor; the kitchen is fine on the wall furthest from the hob.
Six travel gallery walls that work
Each of these is a set we would hang ourselves. Every print is $26 at 8" x 12" or A4 on paper, and the second and third prints in one order take 7% and 10% off automatically, so three 12" x 18" prints come to $89.10 instead of $99.
- The grand tour, 3 in a row. Lisbon, Venice, Rome, all oak. Three cities, one summer, hung in the order you saw them.
- Coast to coast, 3 in a row. Statue of Liberty, Cloud Gate, Golden Gate Bridge: New York, Chicago, San Francisco left to right, the way the map reads.
- Far away, 2 x 2. Machu Picchu with its four llamas on a terrace, Sydney's shell roofs in warm sand over a navy harbour, Havana's three classic cars, and Big Sur's Bixby bridge above chrome-yellow wildflowers. Four continents, one frame colour.
- One park, three ways, 3 in a row. Pick a park you have hiked and hang its mid-century print, its watercolor and its WPA-style poster side by side. The store draws all 63 parks in each style, so any park works; the full run is in US national parks wall art.
- The sofa wall, 1 horizontal + 2 vertical. A 24" x 16" panoramic in the middle, two 12" x 18" verticals either side, centres on one line. The Grand Canyon rim overlook or the Olympic wild coast in the middle; the Great Smoky Mountains oil painting, ridge after blue ridge with pink rhododendron in front, as one of the sides. More wide prints are in horizontal wall art.
- The New England coast, 2 x 2. Portland Head Light on its fractured granite ledges, the Acadia lighthouse on its pink cliff, Big Sur for the other ocean, and one horizontal park print to break the grid. Cold palettes, steel blue and slate, that need a warm wall behind them.
Whatever the set, buy the frames together. Three prints from the same series in three different frames from three different shops is the single most common reason a gallery wall looks like a corridor in a rental. One frame style, one colour, one gap.
Our recommendations
Four prints from the same series that slot into any of the six walls above, each shown in the room it suits.
Cloud Gate, Chicago Illinois Travel Wall Art
Paper from $26 · the middle of the coast-to-coast row
Acadia National Park Lighthouse Retro Travel Wall Art
Paper from $26 · the New England grid
Gatlinburg, Tennessee Travel Wall Art
Paper from $26 · the Smokies pair, town side
Multnomah Falls, Oregon Illustrated Travel Wall Art
Paper from $26 · the tall vertical for a stairwell
Gallery wall FAQ
How high should a gallery wall of posters be hung?
Hang the group so its centre sits at 57–60 inches (145–152 cm) from the floor, which is roughly eye level for a standing adult. Above a sofa or a sideboard, ignore that rule and leave 6–10 inches (15–25 cm) between the furniture and the lowest frame so the wall reads as one piece.
How far apart should prints be in a gallery wall?
Keep 2–3 inches (5–8 cm) between frames and use the same gap everywhere. Tighter than 2 inches looks crowded once the frames are on the wall; wider than 3 inches and the group stops reading as a set, especially with small 8" x 12" prints.
How many travel posters do I need for a gallery wall?
Three is the smallest group that reads as a gallery wall: three 12" x 18" prints in thin frames with 3-inch gaps cover about 48 inches (122 cm) of wall. Six prints in a 3 x 2 grid of 12" x 18" cover about 48 x 43 inches, and nine 8" x 12" prints in a 3 x 3 grid cover about 36 x 48 inches. Two prints in one order are 7% off and three or more are 10% off, applied automatically at checkout.
Can I mix vertical and horizontal travel posters on one wall?
Yes, if the tops or the centres line up. The easiest mix is one horizontal 24" x 16" print in the middle with a vertical 12" x 18" on each side, all centres on one line 57–60 inches from the floor. Keep the frames the same colour so the shapes, not the frames, do the work.
Should I hang paper prints where the sun hits the wall?
No. The Northeast Document Conservation Center notes that light damage to paper is cumulative and irreversible and that direct sunlight is not recommended for anything on paper. Choose the wall opposite the window, or across from it, and you will not notice fading for years.
