Replace Your Gallery Wall With This Vintage Art Trend You Can Thrift

Gallery walls have long been the perfect way to hang a collection of favorite artwork and photographs in your home. The concept has been around for centuries, but it peaked in trendiness in the early 2010s. It has remained a staple for homeowners ever since. In fact, you might be staring at just such an arrangement in your own home right now and wondering if gallery walls are still trendy or out of style. If you've been wanting to revitalize your display, it might be time to consider adding some vintage art. Intaglio medallions are discs with engravings. Ancient and antique versions can fetch high prices, but if you're lucky, you might find affordable, newer intaglios on thrift store shelves.

Gallery walls will likely never go away completely, but they are continuously evolving as home designs change. More and more, people are mixing various mediums together — expanding on the standard paintings-and-photographs combo. It was only a matter of time before intaglios, the centuries-old wall decor trend that's seeing a major comeback, became a part of the gallery wall. Intaglios can be made of semi-precious stone, glass, plastic, or plaster — the latter being what new versions are usually made from. No matter the material, they're intricate, lightweight, and historical, making them instant statement pieces. Whether your interiors are traditional, industrial, eclectic, or shabby chic, the subtle detailing and soft colors of intaglios mean they work with any style.

If you already have a gallery wall, start swapping out the existing artwork with framed intaglios as you acquire them. While it's definitely worth scouring your local thrift stores for these unique pieces of art, you might also want to expand your search to online marketplaces like Etsy and eBay. Both sites have new and vintage intaglios for reasonable prices. Medallions in hand, you can start making beautiful intaglio décor without buying new frames. Remove the original artwork, setting it aside somewhere safe if you want to keep it. Plaster medallions are about a ¼ inch thick, and that exceeds the space inside most standard frames. Rectify the situation by adding thick foam board behind the matting to create space.

Replacing the art in your gallery wall with intaglios not only saves money but also lets you customize your display. Want to add more visual interest and complexity to your wall?  Mount some intaglios on cream matting and frame others with a decorative background that makes the white plaster really stand out. Prefer to have all the attention on the details of the engravings? Arrange frames of the same size in a uniform grid. No matter how you choose to display your thrifted intaglios, they'll bring depth and sophistication to any room they're hanging in.