Create an Overlapping Wall Collage

For some people hanging a wall collage with overlapping elements can be a frustrating and mind numbing experience. When I first started decorating I had no idea how to hang items on a feature wall. My mind was simply blank with ideas. Over the years I’ve grown in confidence and, with the help of pinterest, have no shortage of inspiration. But for some, hanging a wall collage with overlap can be an alluring challenge. Here are the tricks I use and I share my biggest breakthrough when it comes to overlapping wall collages.

In my dining room I’ve been staring at a small empty space of wall for almost a year. I wanted to hang something to add depth, warmth and visual interest. So I let the idea marinate. It wasn’t until I was cleaning up Easter decorations about a month ago that I had the idea. Wouldn’t you know, ultimately this little project cost me nothing because I repurposed items from around my house. Here are all the details.

The Room

Let’s start by talking about the color palette and design of my dining room. The walls are gray and the trim is brown. Not quite light brown, or dark either. I have no idea what kind of wood it is. Oak? Hickory? Cedar? Pine? No clue. Either way just think, a mid tone brown. Hence the gray walls, I needed to balance the warmth added by all the wood. Due to the healthy amount of wood elements in our modern cabin I’ve added plenty of cool tones and natural decor throughout our home to try and achieve balance. So, brown and gray is my starting point here. I’m currently accenting with a fresh green, yellow, mixing black/white patterns throughout, and a pop of light blue.

A simple summer tablescape for the dining room. Low in height, simple and practical all at once.

I also try to add texture wherever I can. Remember my tablescape post from back in December? I scored these great jute style placemats from Crate and Barrel. They give a great pattern of black and white while still maintaining a really neutral feel. Our table is a very dark brown with an almost charcoal gray stain. So I placed a family antique, a hand carved tray, right in the middle. Then a few artificial rosemary plants from IKEA for my green. Lastly, a salt and pepper shaker on a small rustic cutting board add the final touch. Our summer tablescape is simple, clean, and rustic.

The Wall Decor Inspiration

Several months ago I painted the back side of my kitchen cabinets, which acts as one of the walls in the dining room. I’ll be honest, once finished, I didn’t love it. It accomplished the task of adding color and balance to the room though. I just needed to find the right wall decor to balance it. So I hunted until I found a sweet vintage print of butterflies for the main space of wall. But I still had a small section, just above the cutaway to the kitchen, to fill. Instagram and Pinterest helped me realize how I could repurpose items I already had around the house.

I happened to have three extra SOARE’ placemats from IKEA (made from water hyacinth). They were perfect, just the right thickness, color and basket-like texture I was looking for.

I leaned on my inspiration, grabbed some very small nails, a few pieces of eucalyptus twigs I had lying around, and got started.

The Overalapping Wall Collage Made Easy (Your Breakthrough)

When you hang or decorate with multiple items, it’s always a good idea to work with odd numbers. So I chose to hang three placements. Small nails hung each of the placemats because they are light and can be placed between the weaves of hyacinth.

I visually split the small section of wall into thirds. The goal was for my eye to travel from left to right when the entire piece was hung.

I centered the placemats on the wall by hand, and used small pieces of duct tape to get my placement just right. I made sure two placemats were touching. To add depth, the third was overlapping the others.

When you create an overlapping collage, place everything tightly together on your wall. Space between your design elements is fine but at least one of them should be overlapping another.

How to Create an Overlapping Wall Collage in a Few Easy Steps — I hung the placemats in various configurations (using small pieces of duct table behind each) until I found the placement I liked best.

Here is a helpful diagram I whipped up for ya.

I started with the first, farthest left, third. I hung the placemat above center. Then I moved to the right 3rd, hung the second piece at center. For the last placemat, I moved to the middle third and hung it slightly lower than center and made sure it overlapped the two pieces above it. Finally I fiddled with everything, (tweaked it this way and that) until it felt just right.

The final touch was to enclose the design with greenery. Here I’m repurposing eucalyptus sprigs from my Thanksgiving tablescape.

I love creating design elements that can stand alone as one piece, but also connect to rest of the room and color palette.

The dining room continues to be my favorite due to the memories we make around our table each day. This room has evolved through the years and with color changes, furniture updates, and now wall collages I’m pleased to say that the most important thing remains the same. The precious faces around table.