If you’ve ever spent 15 minutes browsing on Pinterest, you’ve seen at least one image of an airy, aspirational room with a perfectly designed gallery wall. You know the type—the “Oh, I just threw some things up there that I liked, and it all worked out,” gallery wall.

If only it were so easy.

The “effortless” gallery wall may be the biggest lie in home décor.

In reality, the gallery wall is where those of us who are interior design beginners encounter the perfect storm of frustration—where spatial reasoning (or lack thereof) meets precise measurements.

But we weren’t about to let that stop us. We went to the experts at Framin’ Place in Mt. Washington for insights on how to pull off hanging a gallery wall that has it all—beauty, style, and longevity.

Mark Thompson has been managing Framin’ Place for nearly 25 years—almost the entire time the business has been serving Baltimore’s art lovers. The shop’s pros specialize in helping Baltimoreans bring more beauty into their homes via their custom framing services.

Here, along with Thompson’s insights, we share some of the most useful tips and tricks for anyone looking to spruce up their space with their very own gallery wall.

Gather your artwork

The first, and most important step, is deciding what pieces to include in your gallery wall. Whether you want to stick to family photos or create a mishmash of artwork, photos, sculpture, and more, the beauty of the gallery wall is that there are no hard and fast rules about what can be included.

Select your frames

As with the artworks themselves, there are no strict rules about what types of frames to include in a gallery wall. The most important thing to take into consideration is how the grouping will look as a whole. “To mix it up can be really sharp, but you wouldn’t want to insert something that’s going to draw attention away from everything else on the wall,” says Thompson. “Using neutral mattes is important for a unified look. As far as frames go, you want to be sure they relate to each other style-wise. Staying within a color family, like all black finishes for a black and white photo wall, looks really great.”

If you’re looking to create a gallery wall with a modern feel, but with staying power, Thompson recommends sticking with something classic. “Throughout the years, we’ve seen trends come and go, but there are some timeless options, like natural hardwoods, or an all-black or all-white minimalist look.”

Protect your pieces
Chances are, you care about the artwork and photographs in your gallery wall. To guard against the damage UV light and acidic materials can cause over time, make sure your pieces are protected. At Framin’ Place, every project uses UV blocking glass and all acid-free materials. “Everything we do is to extend the life of the artwork,” says Thompson. “Often, people don’t realize how faded their artworks have become, since it happens over time.”

Choose a focal point
The eye will naturally go first to the largest piece on the wall, so make sure it’s something you really love. Whether it’s a wedding photo or a print of your favorite Matisse from the BMA’s Cone Collection, this will be the piece that you build the rest of your arrangement around. If you’re looking to make that piece stand out even more, consider using a special frame as an added highlight. “There are certainly ways to elevate a focal point piece. A more ornate frame than the rest of the wall, or a hand applied finish can really let people know that that’s a special piece,” says Thompson. “Look for something you can’t just find anywhere.”

Use stencils to create a layout
Rather than trying to decide on your final arrangement by holding your pieces directly up on the wall, you can make it easier on yourself with stencils. Thompson recommends laying out all your pieces on newspaper or brown craft paper, tracing each one, then cutting them out to create stencils. With a bit of patience and painters’ tape, you can shuffle your stencils around in the space where you want your gallery wall. Keep adjusting until the layout feels right and the spacing between elements is correct. You know what they say, measure twice, hammer once—especially if you rent!

Use the right hardware
If you’re a beginner, do some research into what the proper hanging hardware is for your wall. Brick, plaster, and drywall require different hardware, and the weight of the pieces you’re hanging is a factor as well. (For example, an expansion type screw with a plastic sleeve is best for hanging on brick walls, but drywall calls for a drywall screw.) “You want stability, and to make sure you’re not constantly moving your pictures to straighten them,” says Thompson. “Whether the proper hanging mechanism for the piece is wire or something else, we always put the appropriate hanging mechanism on each piece to make it a little easier for people once they bring the artwork home.”

Let your iPhone do some work
The compass app on your iPhone is hiding a super useful secret—a level! Open the compass, swipe right, and the screen of your phone will become a level. Hold that bad boy up on the top of each frame as you’re hanging, and it’ll show you if you need to scooch the piece a bit this way or that for it to hang straight.

Don’t be afraid to keep adding
You’ve hung the final piece and taken a step back to gaze upon the fruits of your labors, but that doesn’t have to mean your brand-new gallery wall is finished finished. A gallery wall’s organic, irregular borders lend themselves to future additions, or even swapping out artworks and frames as you wish. When you take that next perfect picture, simply grab a frame and add it on.

A following of 200 million people worldwide hasn’t kept Pinterest founders Ben Silbermann and Evan Sharp from seeking insights from the individual. In an effort to gather feedback from users firsthand, the duo—who founded the image-driven lifestyle app in 2010—frequently leaves behind their San Francisco headquarters to meet one-on-one with select “pinners” from all over the globe. Their most recent stop was our very own Baltimore.

“Sometimes in San Francisco, we have celebrities come to the office, and it’s fun,” Sharp said. “But I think for Ben and me, it’s also really meaningful to meet a girl in her 20s who just moved out of her parents’ house. Her experience on Pinterest is just as worthy of attention and understanding for the company as someone who’s famous.”

While here for the day on Wednesday, Silbermann and Sharp attended a luncheon with several local female business owners and lifestyle bloggers including Tia Newton from Four One Oh!, Sara Barnes from Brown Paper Bag, and Brianne Izzo from Cupcakes & Kale Chips. They also met with Joe Ram, a father who uses Pinterest for home renovation and recipe ideas, and Sarah Juanita Dorsey, a jeweler who teaches classes at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Their goal was to learn how each pinner uses the service differently and how they can translate that feedback into company updates.

“We have a big research team that does this kind of work, but I don’t think there’s any substitute for talking to people directly—it’s very different from reading a report,” Silbermann said. “You also get the context of their lives,” added Sharp. “We can see a million people click that button from San Francisco, but it’s really hard to know what specific role Pinterest is playing in their lives.”

Silbermann and Sharp keep the meetings private so that pinners feel comfortable opening up, and once they collect all the insights to bring back home, they brainstorm with their team. Amongst the most recent pinner-driven requests that were implemented on the site include skin-tone filters (which help users find the most fitting hair and makeup tutorials) and board sections (which help organize boards into sub-categories). The crew is currently working on providing more reliable click-through links.

“A lot of the product design philosophy is giving people whatever they want, and making it really useful,” Silbermann said. “I think there are a lot of ways to kill time on your phone, so we want Pinterest to be fun, but also, we want people to look back on it and be like, ‘Oh, that was time well spent.’”

Just before coming to Baltimore, the duo visited Sharp’s hometown in York, Pennsylvania to visit family and collect a more rural-focused consumer report. Growing up just over an hour away from Baltimore, Sharp vividly remembers visiting the Inner Harbor and Camden Yards as a kid during Cal Ripken Jr.’s era. The co-founders have a trip to Iowa scheduled later in the year to get in touch with pinners in Silbermann’s hometown, along with some international excursions planned in the near future (considering over 50 percent of users are outside of the U.S.).

“One thing we find is that, even around the world, people have a lot more commonalities than they do differences,” Sharp said. “It’s been really fun to see the patterns of what people gravitate towards as you meet more and more people and talk to them about the same things.”

Silbermann and Sharp don’t characterize Pinterest as a social network, but instead as a “visual discovery engine” that’s focused on the individual pinner’s imagination. They strive to make Pinterest a place where people can discover the best versions of themselves—whether through recipes, home decor, workout routines, or fashion—and, in turn, live out those inspirations beyond the screen.

“For me, it’s been easier than ever to stay in touch with family, friends, and the news, but I didn’t realize up until recently how important it is to stay in touch with myself,” Sharp said. “So, it’s really helpful in all aspects of life to spend a little bit of time finding new ideas, doing something creative, and trying something new, even if you’re terrible at it.”