Building a Gallery Wall

By Lisa Arnett
Appears in the August 2026 issue.

Have one piece of artwork that’s too small for your wall? Consider featuring it as part of a larger gallery wall. That’s what interior designer Haylie Lapinskas of HaylieRead Interior Design in Downers Grove did in this Lemont home’s informal dining area located off the kitchen.

The inspiration piece was a still life of a bowl of fruit (upper right). “It’s not small, but it’s not big, so we knew we wanted to stick with the same scale for the rest of the pieces,” Lapinskas says. “We picked apart the colors and then looked for new prints that had similar shades or elements. So the top-left piece is more high-contrast black and white, but it has a floral pattern that kind of relates to the original artwork.”

A print of lily pads (bottom center) features greens and blues that complement the original piece as well.

Perfectly symmetrical spacing isn’t required. “Two [of the prints] are wood frames and the rest are brass, so there are some consistencies there to make it look cohesive, but it also can’t look too perfect,” she says. “Like the top two pieces, the one on the left is a little bit shorter than the one on the right, but overall that’s OK—it doesn’t need to be perfectly the same height.”

Photo: Jill Tiongco Photography