Are you looking for an Instagram theme that looks great and is relatively effortless to maintain?
If yes, you should try adding borders to your posts!
Having a consistent Instagram theme is super important, but can also be rather tricky.
With white borders around each post, your photos will easily stand out, and you’ll achieve a consistent look. The secret is in negative space: instead of filling the whole screen, white borders adds extra space that helps highlight your photo.
It’s one of the most popular themes, and there’s a good reason for that: it requires very little planning and it almost guaranteed looks good. There’s not much that can go wrong with a bordered layout.
So how do you achieve this look?
As I said, it’s easy. Basically, all you’ll need to do is add the borders for each photo that you are about to post.
In this post, I’ll show you 6 ways to use borders in an Instagram theme, and how you can create them yourself.
I’m also sharing my template for the Instagram border layout for free, so you can quickly start making a consistent theme for your Instagram profile.
Horizontal & Vertical posts
1. Vertical Posts only
Gone are the days when only square photos were allowed on Instagram. These days Instagram is all about vertical posts.
Therefore, let’s start with a bordered layout with each post with a vertical ratio.
Each post you publish has precisely the same borders. This creates a wide vertical line between the posts.
How? Use the vertical post template for each photo, and you’ll achieve this layout.
2. Horizontal posts only
Just like with the previous layout (vertical posts), posting only horizontal posts creates a clean theme. All you need to do is to use the horizontal post template for each post an
With this layout, there’s more negative space in each post.
Basically, you could post each photo in a 1:1 ratio (squares) and still achieve the same effect. I do, however, recommend using the full vertical space to maximize the visibility of your photo.
Mixing borders
3. Row by Row
To create more interest and variability, try mixing horizontal and vertical posts. The first option is to plan your layout row by row
In this layout, e
Use the vertical post template for 3 subsequent posts, before changing to the horizontal post template for the next 3 posts.
4. Column by column
The next Instagram theme is very similar to the row by row layout. But instead of rows, this time one column has the same border each time.
To achieve this layout, make sure to use the same template for every third post.
So if you publish a post with the horizontal template, post two posts before using the horizontal template again.
To achieve this layout, follow this pattern:
- 1 post, 4th post, 7th post: these have to be with the same borders
And so on. You probably get the idea, right?
It’s a straightforward layout that looks good, but if you lose count, you quickly mess up your feed (not that dangerous, either). But when done correctly, the columns are always aligned (unlike the row by row theme).
5. Mix & Match borders
The mix & match Instagram theme is very popular because it’s looks cool and is easy to keep tidy.
In this theme, every other post is vertical, and every second is horizontal.
This creates an attractive layout that is very easy to achieve.
All you need to do is to use the vertical and horizontal template each in turn.
6. Random order and size
One of the best things about the bordered layout is that it will look almost always beautiful.
So you don’t actually have to worry too much about the order.
So to achieve a fascinating and unique layout, try mixing the order freely.
To make things even more interesting, you could also change the size of the borders. This would give you a very editorial and lookbook feel to your Instagram theme.
Experiment with my free template
Download my template for free and start experimenting with different border layouts. The template is a Canva template, so you can easily drag & drop your photos (and even videos) to the template.
Canva is cloud-based, so you can edit your photos wherever you are (on your smartphone or desktop). And what’s best is that it is entirely free to use.
[elementor-template id=”2551″]
Have you tried using white borders in your Instagram posts before?