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Large Abstract Art on a Budget

April 11, 2013

I’ve been on a pink kick. You’ve seen my diyed pink heart art, glimpses of the pink throw pillows for the living room (with a new coral glass vase for good measure) and my favorite addition – a big piece of pink dining room art. Pink is infiltrating the house.

In my dining room art post I mentioned just how tough it is to find oversized art on a budget. It’s really very tough! I continually find myself drawn to stunning pieces like this aboriginal painting over at Ish & Chi, an oil on canvas like this one by Jesse Mackay, and I hope that one day I can get my hands on an original Katherine Sable. One day I will choose art because it moves my heart and spirit and makes a room sing. But today price plays a big role.

As previously promised, today’s post is a round-up of favorite large pink art pieces that will rock a wall without totally killing the wallet (some of these are even originals):

1. Bethany Oliver Oberly, $189 2. Ora Birenbaum, $345 3. Sixth and Main Photography, $90 4. Annie Clark 5. Unknown landscape from Art.com, $24.99-199.99 6. Sarah Leslie, $34.99-69.99

Until that day comes when price is not a major factor in choosing wall art, there are plenty of creative ways to fill a large space on a budget:

*there are the do-it-yourself abstract options that involve a few tubes of paint and an oversized craft store canvas (purchased with a 40% off coupon, of course)
*the semi-DIY options (I turned this piece of fabric into a big piece of stretched canvas art, and had this botanical chart printed on fabric and then hung it with dowels. Other creative ideas include transforming a map into art or stretching an old flag over a frame – I actually have one ready to go and waiting for its stretch at the moment)
*the framed fabric or wallpaper look for a blast of pattern
*the thrift store, eBay or garage sale finds (I have a few of those hanging around)
*the small town artist (love art shows or even Etsy for these finds)
*or the print route (settling for a print is no big deal! There are plenty of creative ways to frame a print to even make it look like a canvas)

7. Tchmo, $17-57 8. Michelle Armas, $350 (my favorite) 9. So Very Happy, $45 10. Kelli Hall, $38-375 11. Unknown abstract landscape from Art.com, $24.99-199.99 12. Xilvar, $38-375

Some of these guys featured in the round-up are in the hundreds of dollars range, but many are in the double digits and with framing (see a great solution here if you don’t find a store bought frame that fits) might even come in below $100. Which is a total steal.

Happy art hunting!

PS A big thank you to SheKnows.com for featuring our dining room bookshelves in their favorite storage finds!

Ombre Scalloped Tissue Paper Lantern

April 9, 2013

Liv and I worked on this little project back when we were planning for her 2nd birthday. But then we didn’t get a chance to make more than one and we forgot to hang it at the party! So it’s been in our garage ever since.

We pulled it out for a little piñata fun, even though it was really meant to hang over one of the string lights in our backyard (you can see the undecorated paper lanterns on the string lights in the party pics here).

A standard paper lantern, ombre layers of scalloped tissue paper and a long pink ribbon to hang it with – an easy and fun pom project.

I turned to Etsy to find the perfect ombre tissue paper (every color of tissue paper known to man is available in various stores!) and bought four pretty shades of pink from PomLove.

Rather than cut out circles, I cut out 3″ scalloped strands of half circles, and then slowly wrapped them around the lantern using double sided tape to adhere.

I’ve seen versions of this idea that are sealed off at the bottom and filled with candy, seems like an easy non-paper-mache way to make a fun piñata.

I had planned on hanging it in Liv’s big girl room, but the tissue paper may have seen its day by the end of today. Too fragile to keep!

Far too fun to play with.

Living Room Update: A Little Letter Art Bling

April 8, 2013

While maybe a little overdone, I’ve been kind of loving ‘letter art’ for a while. We have our initials on the bookcase in the dining room and even a ‘LIV’ set in Liv’s room that I don’t think I’ve shared just yet.

When placing an order recently with Land of Nod for a cool new desk lamp, I fell for a free shipping coupon and had to spend $15 ish more on the site to qualify. So at $4 each, I threw four of these letters in for good measure (which with a free shipping discount makes them a steal at like $2 each, right? ;)).

They were made out of brown craft paper, 8-10″ tall and very light weight. I thought they might be fun to cover in paint or fabric or wallpaper and hang on a wall or bookcase in the house.

For now, my ‘HOME’ letter art calls the bookcases in the living room home:

But that might change soon. They feel a little big for this space? Would love to shrink them down about an inch on each side.

I thought about spray painting these guys for a super quick gold application but ended up sponging gold craft paint (left over from our Easter project) late one night, thinking that I might like a more burnished rather than solid effect (and the sponge would allow me to give that textured look). The result is definitely a solid gold (I nixed the burnished look after a few minutes), but I love how they’ve turned out.

I have a few gold paint containers in my stash but this metallic gold by Folk Art continues to be my favorite:

While the letters might not stay here, I do love the addition of gold and pink to the space!

Now the heart art ties in with the new Spring pillows (still debating pillows over here :)) which ties in with that cool new glass coral vase (West Elm’s sale bin) up on the shelf.

My plan B was to set the letters up on top of the kitchen cabinets. Might be fun to add a splash of gold?

What do you think, has letter art become cliche? Overused to the moon and back? or does it still make for a fun and crafty addition?

PS The entire living room makeover is chronicled right here.