Create Frugal Wall Art For Your Home

by E-NewsCast Team
October 18th, 2010

Bare walls aren’t merely boring; they can be depressing. Rather than leave the walls in your home naked, join the trend toward handmade home decorations by creating frugal wall art that you can use as gifts or to dress up a drab home environment.

First, gather a collection of various sizes and shapes of frames. It’s helpful to have as large a collection of frames as you can find space to store them, because you’ll never know when a striking new art opportunity will come your way. Yard sales and thrift shops are prime sources for good used frames. Don’t worry if the frames have nicks, scratches or faded paint. Minor defects can always be covered with a coat of paint, but there’s also a decorating style known as Shabby Chic that prefers keeping those blemishes! However, don’t get frames made of poor materials, or frames that are clearly broken unless you’re handy at nailing them back together.

Now that you have a collection of frames, what will you put in them? The short answer is: Anything you want!

For family and close friends, family pictures make terrific gifts, especially when mounted inside inexpensive mats from a craft store and framed. If the pictures are of deceased family members, such as parents or grandparents, it’s a good idea to get a duplicate print made, to keep the irreplaceable original safe in an album. Collections of prints, such as a grouping of childhood pictures for a parent or sibling, also make excellent gifts.

Another great source for wall art are those stunning photographs from calendars, magazines or holiday cards. With so many sources, it’s possible to select a favorite theme or a set of colors to harmonize with the decorating scheme.

Fabric arts also make excellent choices for frugal wall art. One of Grandmother’s embroidered handkerchiefs, a doily crocheted by a pioneer ancestor or a scrap of handmade lace from Mother’s wedding gown, create one-of-a-kind nostalgic, vintage artworks. Why, even small area rugs or pieces of rugs can be used to create wall art. A portion of a favorite bamboo rug would be perfect on the wall of an Asian-inspired bedroom.

Naturally, any homemade needlework pictures or cross-stitch samples are perfect for framing as frugal wall art. The advantage to this option is that you can choose exactly the right colors for the home decorating scheme when creating the artwork and then enhance that with the right color of frame, painting a frame if need be.

Pressed leaves and flowers look marvelous when framed. Look for blossoms and leaves that will lie flat naturally, and then press them between the pages of a book. Leave them for a week or longer, and then check to see if they’ve become crisp and dry to touch. When they do, they are ready to be framed.

Another excellent piece of wall art is a collection of souvenirs from a memorable vacation. These mementoes can include tickets, napkins, photographs, postcards or even menus that are reminders of an extraordinary trip. For a kitchen wall, consider framing a favorite recipe against a pretty background, such as a photograph of baskets of rich, red apples behind a recipe for Mom’s apple pie. The personal touch is what makes these items so precious to those who receive them as gifts.

The finishing touch on any frugal wall art is to add interest to the frame. This can be accomplished in many ways. Painting or gilding a frame with metallic paint or attaching seashells, pebbles, seeds or pinecones can finish off a frame with style. Whatever embellishment will add to the art is the perfect choice.

Whether it’s a family photo, a small modern rug or a section of a handmade lace tablecloth, frugal wall art brings both beauty and personal sentiment to home decoration.

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