The concept of a gallery wall is nothing new, but the look is just as stunning every time we see it. Paul McCartney’s gallery wall is no exception.
McCartney’s dining room is a masterclass in the classic wall decorating technique. His space has cream walls with beautiful lined detailing. The stained wood dining table and sideboard bring warmth, coziness, and a sense of history to his space, while the green and wood mid-century modern chairs add an avant-garde contrast. Above the sideboard, a variety of large framed photographs and paintings cover the wall, filling the space with color and artistic flair.
‘I love this oversized take on the gallery wall,’ says Jennifer Ebert, design expert and digital editor at Homes & Gardens of McCartney’s wall decor. ‘Many gallery walls are built with negative space as the focus, but this design seems to do the opposite. Each large-scale painting takes up a huge portion of the space behind the dining table, creating the effect of a full mural wall.’
To create your own gallery wall, Ebert advises a focus on color, proportion, and alignment. She states, ‘In McCartney’s space, the choice of red, yellow, and green perfectly complement the warm wood of the table. This cohesion between the artwork and the design in the space creates an intentional and unified feel throughout the room.’
She continues, ‘It’s important to note that the gallery wall has been centered to the sideboard and the dining table, creating a symmetrical visual that makes the room appear orderly and well-planned. The size of the paintings has also been coordinated with a healthy amount of white space to keep the gallery wall from becoming too visually overwhelming.’
Shop H&G’s Gallery Wall Edit
The whole idea of a gallery wall is that it is guided by what is particularly intriguing to you based on your personal style, so there is no prescriptive way to do it. However, a collection of variously sized frames never hurt. For this edit, we chose frames in a diversity of sizes and materials to cater to a variety of tastes and styles of gallery wall.
Paul McCartney’s dining room is just one example of what a beautiful gallery wall can look like, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
For a quainter alternative, we recommend sourcing vintage frames for a more country-style wall – perfect for homes with a more rustic aesthetic. This allows us to turn a hobby, such as flower pressing, into a work of art by hanging them in age-old, slightly weathered frames and hanging them closely together on a blank wall. It’s a personal twist on McCartney’s classic look.