Choosing the Right Display for Your Family Portraits
The Gallery Wall
A gallery wall is a curated collection of portraits displayed together, typically featuring different frame styles and print mediums, different sizes, orientations, & sizes, and sometimes even incorporating other artistic renditions (paintings, drawings, etc.). This artistic route offers several distinct advantages:
Gallery walls excel at telling a story, like an album for your walls. You can showcase different moments from the same session—close-ups of individual children, candid interactions between siblings, and a full family portrait—all working together to create a cohesive narrative of who your family is in this moment. Each piece contributes to the whole while standing on its own, should you choose to move it to a different room.
Storytelling Through Layers
Gallery walls excel at telling a story, like an album for your walls. You can showcase different moments from the same session—close-ups of individual children, candid interactions between siblings, and a full family portrait—all working together to create a cohesive narrative of who your family is in this moment. Each piece contributes to the whole while standing on its own, should you choose to move it to a different room.
Visual Interest and Flexibility
The varied sizes and portrait arrangements in a gallery wall create a unique visual interest. Your eye travels across the display, discovering new details each time you smile up at your family. It also offers the ultimate flexibility, allowing you to continuously add to your collection over time as your family grows and you capture new milestones.
Filling Larger Odd-Shaped Spaces
Gallery walls are ideal for expansive walls where a single piece might feel lost, or when the size you’d need to fit the space feels restrictively big. Or when you’ve got an oddly shaped section of wall you’d like to utilize. Yep, bigger isn’t always better. A grouping of varied-sized portraits can transform a long hallway, fill a stairwell wall, or anchor a large living room with personality and warmth. It can also add joy to an otherwise empty corner.
Investment Considerations
While gallery walls require multiple pieces, you can build them gradually over the course of several sessions through the years. I recommended starting with three to five portraits and adding more as your family’s story unfolds.
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The Statement Piece
A gallery wall is a curated collection of portraits displayed together, typically featuring different frame styles and print mediums, different sizes, orientations, & sizes, and sometimes even incorporating other artistic renditions (paintings, drawings, etc.). This artistic route offers several distinct advantages:
Immediate Impact
One large, beautifully crafted wall art piece creates instant visual impact. There’s no competing for attention—your family’s portrait is the undeniable star of the space. This singular focus creates a powerful emotional connection every time you enter the room, for yourself and your guests.
Timeless Elegance
Statement pieces offer a classic, sophisticated aesthetic. They work beautifully in formal spaces like dining rooms, above mantels or couches where you want to make a strong first impression, or in entryways to be reminded of the emotional connection every time you walk through the door of ‘home’. The simplicity of one stunning piece never goes out of style, and neither do the frames if you choose correctly (I help with that!).
Easier Placement Decisions
With one piece, you don’t need to worry about spacing, alignment, or which images work together. The decision is simpler: find the right wall, center your portrait, and let it shine. Either way, I take care of all of those logistics for you, so don’t let math or symmetry stand in your way of choosing the art you truly want.
Focused Investment
While a large statement piece requires a more significant investment than a desktop frame, you’re choosing one museum-grade, heirloom-quality piece that will last for generations and outlive any of the beautiful people in the portrait. And you can get the rest of the images from your session in an album to enjoy later too, so don’t feel like you need to pick just one.
Why Size Matters:
Here’s where many families make a critical mistake: choosing a portrait size that’s too small for the space and the emotional weight of the image.
The 8x10 Conundrum
At first thought, an 8×10 portrait might seem like a reasonable size. After all, it’s what everyone gets of their school portraits or of their seasonal visit with Santa, and historically our grandparents loved it because it was easy to find a frame for and it fits nicely on a desk or bookshelf. It’s the reason why I call them gift prints, because they are perfect for that! But when you’re investing in a statement piece for your wall, a teeny tiny 8×10 simply cannot deliver the impact your family deserves. See?
The problem with using small portraits as feature pieces:
- They disappear on the wall. An 8×10 on a typical living room wall looks like an afterthought, not a treasured family heirloom. Your eye barely registers it from across the room.
- They diminish the emotional impact. Your family’s faces, expressions, and connections deserve to be seen and felt. A tiny portrait can’t capture the viewer’s attention or evoke the emotional response that makes portrait artwork so valuable.
- They don’t command the space. If you’re designating a wall for a statement piece, that piece needs to actually make a statement. An 8×10 whispers when it should speak loudly with confidence.
- They undervalue the investment. You’ve invested time in planning, participated in a professional portrait session, and carefully selected your favorite image. Displaying it at 8×10 doesn’t honor that investment or the importance of your family.
The Right Size for Statement Pieces
For a true statement piece, you’re looking at portraits that start at 20″ at minimum, with many families choosing 20×30, 24×36, 30×40 or even larger to best fit THEIR walls. These larger sizes:
- Fill the visual space appropriately for standard residential walls
- Allow facial expressions and details to be clearly visible from conversation distance
- Create the emotional connection that makes you stop and smile every time you pass by
- Establish your family as the priority they truly are in your life and home
Think of it this way: you wouldn’t hang a postcard-sized reproduction of a masterpiece in a museum. Your family portrait is your own personal masterpiece, and it deserves to be displayed with the same respect and prominence. Like this beautiful heirloom canvas with hand-painted brush strokes (24×30″ + frame):
At first thought, an 8×10 portrait might seem like a reasonable size. After all, it’s what everyone gets of their school portraits or of their seasonal visit with Santa, and historically our grandparents loved it because it was easy to find a frame for and it fits nicely on a desk or bookshelf. It’s the reason why I call them gift prints, because they are perfect for that! But when you’re investing in a statement piece for your wall, a teeny tiny 8×10 simply cannot deliver the impact your family deserves. See?
Making Your Decision
So which approach is right for you?
Choose a gallery wall if:
- You want to tell a more complex story with multiple images
- You have a large wall space that needs filling
- You enjoy the flexibility of building your collection over time
- You love the personalized feel of eclectic and curated collections
Choose a statement piece if:
- You want maximum impact with a singular portrait
- You prefer a classic, timeless aesthetic (minimalist or ornate)
- You have a specific focal wall that needs an anchor
- You want to create one significant heirloom art piece
Whichever you choose, remember this: size matters.
Whether it’s the largest piece in your gallery wall or your single statement portrait, invest in a size that does justice to your family’s importance. Your portraits are so much more than home decor—they’re daily reminders of what matters most, visual celebrations of your family’s love and connection.
They deserve to be seen, felt, and treasured at a size that reflects their true value in your life.
And if you really cannot choose, I recommend a 16×24 because it gives you future options: it fits well within a gallery wall, and on the right wall, it can make its own statement. Add a few smaller frames and canvases to this one (this client’s long-term art plan), and it tells a beautiful story of a family of four:
Creating Your Perfect Display
Whether you’re drawn to the storytelling richness of a gallery wall or the powerful simplicity of a statement piece, the most important element is working with a professional who understands how to create museum-grade, heirloom-quality artwork that will last for generations and stand out while seamlessly fitting into your home style.
From the initial art planning consultation through final installation, every decision—from size and orientation to framing and placement—should be made with intention, ensuring your family’s portraits become cherished heirlooms that tell your story beautifully for decades to come.
Your walls are waiting to celebrate your family, and I would be honoured to help you make sure they do so in a way that truly honours the love and connection captured in your portraits. And we’ve got the perfect software that shows you exactly what your images will look like in your home, on your walls, in the right size—no guessing.
Here is an example showing a beautiful extended family portrait (20×30″), the perfect size for this space to act as a temporary statement piece as they add to their goal of a gallery wall:
How Do I Book A Photo Session?
Pure Natural Portraits (Stephanie de Montigny)
Pregnancy through Baby’s First Year & Beyond
Almonte / Ottawa, Ontario | (613) 371 – 4594
Reach out to hello@purenaturalportraits.com
