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How to Expand Your Art Collection on a Tight Budget
Houzz Contributor. Hi There! I currently live in a 1920s cottage in Atlanta that I'll describe as "collected."
I got into design via Landscape Architecture, which I studied at the University of Virginia. I've been writing about design online for quite a few years over at Hatch: The Design Public Blog.
Houzz Contributor. Hi There! I currently live in a 1920s cottage in Atlanta... More »
While there is nothing quite like owning a piece of art from an artist you love, the fact is, there aren't a lot of Chagalls in the budget for most of us. We may invest in a few favorite pieces from galleries and street festivals, but still have plenty of other blank boring walls crying out for some artwork of their own.
There are plenty of ways to stretch your art budget. As framing costs are sky high, check your local craft and Big Box stores for good deals on frames and mats for a little D.I.Y. project. Matching frames can help unify a group of disparate pieces together. Get to know standard sizes of off-the-rack frames so that you can use them and avoid costly custom jobs.
Good sources for affordable art include your kids' schoolwork, atlases, architecture and photography books, your own photography, Etsy prints, concert and festival posters, that old sketchbook from your trip to Italy in grad school, wallpaper samples, fabric samples, decals, mirrors, empty flea market find frames, a vintage illustrated botanical guide, nautical charts, your old girl scout badges, a favorite fashion book (for me, it's a book Manolo Blahnik's drawings), vintage magazine covers, old painted and/or enamel signs, kid's books (I recently saw framed pages from a Babar book somewhere - it looked great), vintage ads, pressed leaves you found on adventures...you get the idea. Simply open your mind a little and imagine anything aesthetically pleasing and/or sentimental to you in a frame and you are off to a good start. Allow me show you some examples...
There are plenty of ways to stretch your art budget. As framing costs are sky high, check your local craft and Big Box stores for good deals on frames and mats for a little D.I.Y. project. Matching frames can help unify a group of disparate pieces together. Get to know standard sizes of off-the-rack frames so that you can use them and avoid costly custom jobs.
Good sources for affordable art include your kids' schoolwork, atlases, architecture and photography books, your own photography, Etsy prints, concert and festival posters, that old sketchbook from your trip to Italy in grad school, wallpaper samples, fabric samples, decals, mirrors, empty flea market find frames, a vintage illustrated botanical guide, nautical charts, your old girl scout badges, a favorite fashion book (for me, it's a book Manolo Blahnik's drawings), vintage magazine covers, old painted and/or enamel signs, kid's books (I recently saw framed pages from a Babar book somewhere - it looked great), vintage ads, pressed leaves you found on adventures...you get the idea. Simply open your mind a little and imagine anything aesthetically pleasing and/or sentimental to you in a frame and you are off to a good start. Allow me show you some examples...
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These are all wallpaper samples; I recognize some that are definitely from Ferm Living. I think they are about $3-5 each, and look at how great they look hanging together! The identical frames bring them together.
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You can get the look of this collection by cutting pages from an architecture book. Browse used book stores for tomes about Palladio or the architecture of ancient Greece.
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Wall decals are a wonderful way to dress up any room. I've seen everything from dinosaurs to botanicals available lately. They are easy to remove and you can experiment with different compositions when you to switch things up.
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by Amoroso Design
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| When you use your own photographs with identical frames and mats in a grid, you can include all kinds of subject matter. |
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Vintage shell-tanicals are easy to find on eBay and if you're lucky, you'll come across an entire book of plates. These are perfect for the coastal look. You can also use illustrations of plants, beetles, foxes - whatever you like.
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A series of prints from one artist always makes for a great collection.
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Working on a next-to-nothing budget for a family homeless shelter, this designer turned a bunch of very inexpensive pieces into a collection by arranging them like a pro.
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You can pick up a variety of mirrors at discount stores and make a fun wall out of them.
by Terrie Hall
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If you want to cover the entire wall like this, pretty much anything goes. The only thing that is uniform is the general spacing between each frame.
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Try a wall of brightly colored kid art. Use frames - no masking tape or push pins allowed! (By the way, this is NOT to meant to debase this artist's work; it was the bright colors that made me think of the exuberant artwork of children!)
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With the slightest bit of computer font saavy and a printer, you can be the artist and mix in some favorite sayings or words into your arrangement.
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Mrs. Limestone has turned her every day supplies into art!
by Kasey Buick
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Comments
bluechic What you could also do is buy some foam or cork, cover it in some inexpensive fabric and add photos, favorite quotes, pretty much anything for a quirky DIY look.
3 years ago · Like
Becky Harris Good idea! I did that with some really pretty handmade paper from Papersource recently but was turning it into a bulletin board. I hadn't thought of fabric. Marimekko fabric is great to stretch over canvases for some instant retro modern art.
3 years ago · Like
laurahahe great ideas! I plan to hit up garage sales this summer, buy lots of frames and then paint them all the same color
3 years ago · Like
Karen Evans Thanks for the inspiration! I like to hit a local antiques mall for unique items to frame. In my home office (that only I see) I used spray painted items that I already owned and hung them in an arrangement above my desk. I add to the arrangement whenever I find something else that works. 
3 years ago · Like
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XOJY A length of L angle bolted into the wall allows us to switch art whenever we feel like it because we have so little wall space and so much art. 
3 years ago · Like
Pamela Waters I buy calendars with artwork I love and when the year is over, I put the pictures in frames and voila! It's nice because each year I can switch out and have brand new artwork for virtually no money at all
3 months ago · Like
Ideabook updated on Nov. 9, 2012.
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