ggpairs plot with heatmap of correlation values

Question

My question is twofold;

I have a ggpairs plot with the default upper = list(continuous = cor) and I would like to colour the tiles by correlation values

Answer 1

A possible solution is to get the list of colors from the ggcorr correlation matrix plot and to set these colors as background in the upper tiles of the ggpairs matrix of plots.

library(GGally)   
library(mvtnorm)
# Generate data
set.seed(1)
n <- 100
p <- 7
A <- matrix(runif(p^2)*2-1, ncol=p) 
Sigma <- cov2cor(t(A) %*% A)
sample_df <- data.frame(rmvnorm(n, mean=rep(0,p), sigma=Sigma))
colnames(sample_df) <- c("KUM", "MHP", "WEB", "OSH", "JAC", "WSW", "gaugings")

# Matrix of plots
p1 <- ggpairs(sample_df, lower = list(continuous = "smooth"))  
# Correlation matrix plot
p2 <- ggcorr(sample_df, label = TRUE, label_round = 2)

The correlation matrix plot is:

# Get list of colors from the correlation matrix plot
library(ggplot2)
g2 <- ggplotGrob(p2)
colors <- g2$grobs[[6]]$children[[3]]$gp$fill

# Change background color to tiles in the upper triangular matrix of plots 
idx <- 1
for (k1 in 1:(p-1)) {
  for (k2 in (k1+1):p) {
    plt <- getPlot(p1,k1,k2) +
     theme(panel.background = element_rect(fill = colors[idx], color="white"),
           panel.grid.major = element_line(color=colors[idx]))
    p1 <- putPlot(p1,plt,k1,k2)
    idx <- idx+1
}
}
print(p1)