Economical Ways to Get Art for Your Home

On a recent post I talked about my trepidation when it comes to hanging art on my still-bare-after-living-here-for-two-years-already-walls. It’s a sad thing.

Justifying the cost of custom framing is hard when I do not own any REAL art. Unless you count these fine art pieces (from my craft room and Andrew’s closet):

Andrew's boat and firetruck from age 5

Self portrait by Elizabeth age 8, I think

As I said, I know precisely what I want on all my blank walls. Take for instance, my dining room. I knew on the two large walls on either side of our entrance from the kitchen I wanted botanical prints. I liked these from Ballard Designs but for the space I was decorating, I needed six prints not four:

But really, I didn't like the $499 price tag. Yes, I would have them for a long time. Yes, I’m sure they were framed nicely. But I KNEW I could do it MUCH cheaper and still have the quality look I envisioned.

Honeysuckle that hangs on my wall (and grows
all along the edge of our woods) - we have lots of it!

I started searching online and came across several websites where you can download vintage prints. I specifically found a whole database of a very old (19th century) botanical book that you could download for free.

German Leaved Spirea (from a botanical book printed in 1829)

My favorite color is red. I knew when I started looking that I wanted several of my prints to have red. I use it throughout my house in the main living spaces. When I started looking and planning I decided, “Wouldn't it be neat to use prints of plants and trees we have on our property?” And that’s what I did!

Passionflower (TN's state wildflower!) from a botanical book printed in 1815

I chose mistletoe, honeysuckle, walnut tree, apple, rose, and fir tree. I downloaded them and had to make some adjustments to print them as an 8x10. I bought frames on sale at Michael’s when 50% off and also did the same for the mats. I did spend a bit on having them professionally printed on fine art paper. I wanted the look that they were the real deal. (Of course I am now broadcasting to the world that they ARE NOT. How ironic?!)

Another way to take images like this and use them is having them printed on canvas (ArtsCow runs sells a lot to do it inexpensively) or to use the picture and do an image transfer on cloth or some other media.

To get you started, here are a few places to with free art like this online:
Biodiversity Heritage Library (This site has a plethora of art; you may be searching for a while!):
Free Vintage Posters
Metropolitan Museum of Art (for personal enjoyment only)

There are also a lot of images by artists on Flickr but I do not know information regarding them and copyright laws so unless you read a release then keep it for personal use.

Dianthus (printed in 1787)

But there’s a Part Two to this story…..

There I was, moving right along. I had completed the hard parts – choosing and buying frames, downloading and editing the images to fit in my frames, and having them printed….but then I had to hang them.

Hanging pictures around my house is not a fun thing when I need to enlist the help of my husband. He’s a CPA and quite technical by nature. Hanging one 8x10 photo could take at least 30 minutes. Putting more than one nail hole in the wall for him is a BIG no-no. I’m all about you can just cover it with the picture but not him. My calculations of how long it would take to hang SIX large framed prints. And the fact that I wanted them spaced perfectly on either side of the corners and opening of the room and I wanted them all the same height and of course they had to be spaced apart from each other exactly. Oh, mama mia! 5 hours? A day? A week including marriage counseling?

Guess what happened? My prints sat. Thankfully, this story does have a happy ending. They only sat on the dining room table for about two weeks. No more. One evening I was feeling inspired to do it. (In fact, I had a vitamin B12 shot that day and was feeling quite spunky.) Wade and Andrew had gone to my mom's to get their hair cut and Elizabeth was with them so I had the house to myself. No interference!

I decided TODAY was the day! I had bought some 3M Command Strips (boy, do I love love love those things!) and got to work. I measured the walls on either side of the door opening, measured the outside width of the frames, decided how far apart I wanted them by laying them on the floor, and found our long level and made it happen. Once I started, I had them ALL hung in THIRTY minutes!!!

It was amazing.

Amazing because they were all straight.

Amazing because they were all evenly spaced.

Amazing because I did it myself without a hammer or nails.

This was from my phone last year right after I finished.
I sent this to a friend because I was so excited!

So the moral of this story is: You CAN get cheap inexpensive art for your home that has meaning and you CAN hang it with ease and no frustrations. (Just maybe get a vitamin B12 shot before you hang it!)

I wanted to close with sharing some more prints I have framed in the same way in our powder room. For these I had them printed on canvas through ArtsCow (link here) when they were having a sale on 8x10 canvas prints (4 for $20). (They are currently having a sale on photo gifts that include canvas prints up to 18x20 for 3 for $25 with free shipping through October 13.) I found these vintage images below through The Graphics Fairy. She has lots of great ideas/projects on her site where she and others have used her images.

Do you have any art you framed yourself for cheap in your home? Share a picture in the comments or on our Facebook page or just tell us about it. Have you used the 3M Command strips for hanging pictures? Do you love them like I do? ;)