A few months ago, Dave and I watched a documentary about the image of Divine Mercy (The Face of Mercy, available on Formed, if you’re interested). We both love this image, its meaning, and its history, and as soon as the credits were rolling, Dave told me it was really important to him that we incorporate some more religious art into our home where we could see it every day. I totally agreed with him…but I’ll be honest, the blogger in me was a little reluctant. I have seen so few examples of religious art in home decor that doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb, especially in a house like ours that has a pretty specific style. We were pretty committed though, so I decided to flip my reluctance on its head and turn this into a fun design challenge. Our solution was to create a gallery wall in our living room that we would be able to see from anywhere in our main living area–you may have spotted it in our home tour last week!

In case this is a challenge you’re facing too, I wanted to share a few tips:

1. Just as with any gallery wall, choose a color scheme. This is the number one thing that makes a gallery wall look cohesive! We stuck with the palette in our living room: blues, whites, and grays.

2. Mix it up. I think the best gallery walls are made up of a good variety of things: photographs (with and without people in them), prints (images and words), 3-D objects…I’ve even seen planters included! I’m not quite that brave, but we did include a holy water font, a rosary, and two crosses that brought some dimension and different shapes to the wall. Again, just stick to a color palette and pretty much anything can look beautiful and well-curated.

3. Opt for simple frames and mats. Almost every framed thing in my house is in a black, white, or silver frame with a white mat, and this gallery wall is no exception. Don’t be afraid to switch out religious art that comes pre-framed (a lot of it seems to)! We loaded up on simple black and white frames from Michael’s and still had silver frames on hand from the family photo display at our wedding. For any unique shapes or sizes, Framebridge is the BEST for custom framing, and they have tons of gorgeous, classic styles to choose from.

So where to find religious art? Dave and I have collected quite a few pieces throughout our travels (it’s always a meaningful souvenir!), so we went through what we already had and pulled out the things that fit our colors and the scale of the gallery wall. As far as artwork and prints go, I always check Catholic Company and the Franciscan University bookstore for traditional pieces (though we ended up finding our Divine Mercy image and holy water fount at Pauline Books in Charleston) and my favorite online artists for watercolors and art prints. Here are a few!

Rose Harrington Art (for watercolors, saint quotes, and prayers; where our Morning Offering and Totus Tuus prints are from)
Lindsay Letters (for scripture verses and hymns; where our Come Thou Fount print is from)
Be a Heart (saint quotes)
Juliet Grace Design (scripture verses, hymns, and quotes)

Do you incorporate religious art into your home decor in a special way, or do you have any favorite sources? I’d love to hear!