Thrifted and DIY Art Work

One of the things that has been missing in our house is art on the walls. In my opinion, getting art up on your walls is one of the most challenging things in a home, but also one of the most important since it can make a room feel complete. Art is so personal... and for myself, as an artistic person, I would have trouble putting "big box" art on my walls. So, our house has had empty walls since moving in for the most part.

We have lucked out at thrift stores on a few occasions. For example, we found our large art piece in our sitting room at a local thrift store. It is totally my style, and an original.

Before we met, Joe found (and framed) the bike art that is in our kitchen.



More recently, I found a couple of matching pieces that I put in our guest bedroom. I think I might eventually paint the frames to make them a little more interesting.

We have found a bunch of other, small pieces that are around the house as well.  However, despite months (even years!) of looking, we weren't finding anything that would work in our room, or Henry's nursery.

So, I decided to go the DIY route.
About 7 years ago, I pulled a large, framed, ugly canvas art out of a pile of stuff my neighbour was taking to the dump. I had plans of reusing the canvas to make something for myself. Unfortunately (fortunately?) I forgot to take a before picture... but to give you an idea, it was a brown/orange/beige, swirly, 70's, failed attempt at abstract looking thing (70's DIY!). It kicked around for all of those years, mostly in my Mum's house. Finally, I got around to using it! I painted the back white and chose a few accent colours and painted strips with a large paintbrush. I don't love it, but it definitely adds colour and interest to our room! And ties everything together.

For Henry's room, I wanted some fun animal art. I am lucky to have some artistic ability, so I simply drew some animals by using Sharpie paint markers. I bought some patterned paper for the background and cut and paste the animals on. I *may* have gotten my inspiration for these from photos I found online, so they are in no way original. But, they definitely spruce up the nursery. I am now on the hunt for a big poster to hang over his crib in the orange/gray-brown/brown/yellow colour scheme I am going for in there. His room still needs a lot of work to get it where I want it!

Things are starting to really shape up around here and it feels great!