Who knew starting a gallery wall and adding art around my home would be so expensive. I actually underestimated how much it would all cost until we moved into our new house. $50 here, $30 there and so on really started adding up and I reached a point where I needed to start getting a little more creative with how I was going about collecting art for my home.
I recently discovered two (awesome) ways to incorporate new art into my house that is beyond affordable.
1) Purchase white canvases from your local craft or framing store and paint something abstract or unique on it yourself. Small canvases will run anywhere from $5 to $10. My local framing store recently had a buy one get one free sale so I stocked up and got a great deal on a small little stack of canvases. My husband is actually the artistic one in the house so he already had all the acrylic paint. I simply drew out my designs with a charcoal pencil and they painted over the tracing with my paint. I could not have been more happy with how they turned out!
2) Search for art in thrift shops. If you can look past the ugly chipped frames and stained dusty dirty glass you can find some really incredible artwork! Re-framing a piece of beautiful art is easy so all you need is a little vision. You can also find great frames at thrift stores. So if you love the frames and don't love the art you can buy the frames and toss the art. Another thing to keep in mind is that most thrift shops have days where they have 50% off sales. So if you really want a great deal ask the shop when they are having a sale. Sometimes you can even negotiate if you talk to the right person. It never hurts to ask! I found the lion print above in a dusty corner of my local thrift shop. Originally it was in a really hideous black bamboo frame and the glass was stained and beyond dirty. It was something that could have easily been overlooked but I loved the print so much I snatched it up immediately. I paid $7 for it and walked out doing a little happy dance. The deer print was also a little gem that I found in a thrift shop. It was $3! I put both of them in simple black frames that I already had and they are perfect additions to Ronin's room. I will be continuing to scour my local thrift shops to find more fun pieces for my walls.
Do you have a favorite affordable source for finding great artwork? I would love to hear!
8 comments:
I love them all!
Love that lion! He looks like Aslan from Narnia. :)
Such good tips for art Lindsay. :) That lion print is fabulous, and you're right about finding some good things at thrift stores.
I love that deer print! I had been searching online for a similar one before you posted this - now I will look around town instead. This was a great post. Thanks!
I love your thrift shop idea. I've been wanting to find cool vintage figurines in thrift shops and then spray paint them a solid color to make them more my style too. I've been getting prints on Etsy lately and love all of them.
Adore these beautiful finds! We love the pretty artwork you've added!
xo
www.PlumPrettySugar.blogspot.com
I've had great success with buying cheap frames from thrift stores (some ornate and some plain) and spray painting them with semi gloss black paint. Then hanging them together in like a mis matched but coordinated since they're the same colour way. Also using pre cut mats from michaels to make things look and fit better.
Brilliant post, my walls are looking pretty bare so I need to get some artwork up and these ideas will come in pretty handy, my pockets thank you haha.
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