Home Made Wall Art (Wall Hangings)

Member Name: TigerTiger

Product:	Wall Hangings
Date:	16/03/01 (4106 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You get something individual for less money; many different options;

Disadvantages: May take some time and experimentation; patience required

Do you have bare walls that are in need of a bit of life injecting into them???

Do you long for something inspirational and different to hang above the
mantlepiece?

Are you about as artistic as a penguin with a paintbrush????

Do you long for interesting wall coverings, but don't want to pay a fortune for them?

SOLUTION: HOME MADE WALL COVERINGS

Ok, I can hear all of you crying, as if I can make something good enough to hang on my wall. Well, believe it or not we all have it in us. I actually did art at A Level and contemplated going to college to study it, so I am
reasonably artistic, however the ideas that I am going to tell you about are easy enough for everyone to do, even those as artistic as a penguin with a paintbrush. (Please don't start commenting on all the artistic Pingu's you
know!).

I recently found myself moving into my first flat, it was new and all the walls were smoothly plastered and painted Magnolia, I felt that I needed to inject some life into the place and more importantly some of me into the room.
I have to confess I went out and bought a picture I fell in love with for above the mantlepiece, I love my picture, however it cost me just under £100 for a print and frame and faced with many more bare walls it got me thinking,
surely there has to be cheaper way of covering my walls and lo and behold there is, all it takes is some time and a little effort, but most importantly minimal cash.

****** OPTION ONE: HOME MADE ART************

If the word "art" hasn't thrown the panic into you, read on. I love bright colours and wanted something to cover my kitchen walls which were magnolia, whilst the the rest of my kitchen was natural wood with stainless steel. So,
modern was definitely the style I wanted to adopt. When reading a home magazine I found this great idea and I managed to adapt it to make it even cheaper and easier.
I now have 3 canvases on my wall with a continuing pattern acorss them. They look so bright and my friends have often admired them thinking that I actually bought them and who am I to say otherwise!

~~~WHAT YOU WILL NEED~~~~

*Pre-stretched canvases. Buy however many you will need, although I used 3 to get my desired effect. I found 27 x 34cm canvases at around £5.50 each at my local art store.

*Paint brushes in varying widths. In total I spent £6 on brushes, however, I epxect many of you will have brushes lying around.

*4 test pots of differently coloured paints. I found these for 90p each from B&Q. You can choose whatever colours that suit your colour scheme.

*Masking tape

*Ruler

*Pencil

*2 rolls of insulating tape which were 30 p each at B&Q, you need to ensure that you have sufficient to wrap around the edges of each canvas.

~~~~~HOW TO CREATE YOUR WALL COVERINGS~~~~

1. Firstly, you need to decide what design you want to have on your canvases. I opted for the style I found in the magazine which was vertical stripes of different widths which spanned acoss all the canvases. However, you can get lots of inspiration from magazines and even styles of wall paper. Other ideas include zig-zags, circles and just interesting shapes. Often the key to effective looking canvases like this is keeping it simple. When you have decided what to do copy it out onto paper, including the colour sequence.

2. You need to copy the design onto the canvas in pencil for guidelines. This is invaluable in order to prevent mistakes. Although you can just repaint your canvases in a neutral shade and start again, this is all unecessary time wasting.

3. Stick masking tape on to one of the pencil lines to help you paint a straight line and then proceed to paint on your first colour.

4. Remove old masking tape where necessary then apply the next colour.It is very important tha
t each colour is dry before applying the next colour.

5. Continue to apply all the colours until the canvas is complete. Then give each stripe a second coat.

6. When all of the paint is dry, stick the isoloating tape around the edges to cover the tacks on the canvas and give the appearance of a clean edge. Alternatively, you can pay a little more and get canvases with no tacks, but these are more expensive, usually 2 or 3 times more so.

~~~~~ADDITIONAL TIPS~~~~~~~~

To save on money hunt around in the shed or garage for left over paints. Ok, now all colours may be appropriate, yet even finding one or two saves money. I used some magnolia in mine and most of us have a pot of that hanging around.

Choose the paint you want with care depending on what type of finish you want. For a shiny finish use egg shell, stain or silk finishes. For a less shiny finish use matte emulsion, this is what I used to get a natural modern look. Alternatively, if you have some lying around you can use artist's oils or acrylic paints.

For a long lasting finish apply some varnish over the top. Again this can be matte or silk depending on required finish. I opted not to do this as I thought that in time I may want to re-use my canvases and using varnish would make this harder to do.

To cheapen the price you could cut up pieces of hard board and paint them over with either a white or magnolia base to prime them. This can be a lot cheaper than canvases, I just didn't want to have to cut up wood.

TOTAL COST FOR WALL ART £23
SAVING AGAINST BUYING PRINTS £77

**********OPTION 2: ADVERTS*********************

This idea may sound really simple, it is, however only recently I found out how effective it could look. Advertisements can look really effective when properly framed.

I wanted some prints for my bathroom walls. I decided on using perfume advertisements. I chose these as from my k
nowledge of advertising I know that these are designed with images of sex and romance, to appeal to our senses and I thought that was the image I wanted in my bathroom.

I always have piles of magazines hanging around and so the adverts were effectively free. All it takes is some time to go through the magazine and decide which ones to use. There are so many perfume adverts that this really is not an easy task. I tried to decide on a theme though and I chose all black and white prints, the Calvin Klein ones are especially great. When choosing prints it is best to opt for those with minimal writing on them.

Framing can be the expensive part of the project. However, there are ways around this and a number of different options:-

1. The cheapest option is to buy the simple clip frames which retail at around £3 for an A4 size.

2. You could buy ready prepared frames and often you can buy different covered inserts to add that little bit more sophistication. I opted for this method and bought some lovely and trendy woody/ metal style frames at my local store for about £8 each.

3. If you have more money you can get them professionally framed. This can vary in price depending on whose services you use.

Although I used adverts for perfumes here you can choose anything, although it is best to follow a theme. Furthermore, you can also do similar things with interesting gift wrap and even any left over wall paper you may have. In one of my rooms I actually bought a piece of interesting gift wrap which was just too good to use as wrap and I framed it in a huge frame, yet it still only cost me £20.

TOTAL PRICE FOR 4 A4 FRAMED PRINTS £40
SAVING AGAINST BUYING PRINTS £60

***********OPTION 3: SLICED PRINTS***************

The next option actually was an idea that I came up with after trying both the first 2 options. Once again you find some interesting prints. You then have to slice them up into
3 sections of different widths. I usually start with the biggest section and then gradually make the subsequent pieces smaller and smaller. I bought some silver card and stuck them onto it with small lines in between. This looked so effective as the metallic light was shining through. These are then frameable and look simple, but brilliant. You can also do this with different coloured card and even backing it onto material for added distinction.

COST PER PRINT (VARIES DEP.ON FRAME) £8-12 ON AVERAGE

**************OPTION 4. 3D PRINTS***************

This is again a simple yet effective design. I really like Love heart sweets and think they look quite nice and at times the things that they say are funny. I took a piece of silver card and then made a square of 12 lovehearts on it. I then had it framed with my local framer and it looks really sweet on my bedroom wall. I have since made another one for my friend who likes them and then a variation which features those old fashione hubba bubba bubblegums with 6 in a rectangle shape.

These are slightly kooky, but for those with a liking for something a little different they are great. You also get to choose the love hearts that say the things you want them too!

ust aside from this, I made some lovely little love heart gift cards which went down really well with my friends and are a must for Valentines day.

Love hearts 38p for a longer tube
silver card £10 p for A4 sheet
A4 frame £10
TOTAL COST OF ONE PICTURE £10.48

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~

A I hope I have demonstrated you don't have to spend a lot of money to have a home with a designer touch. There are so many interesting options and all you need it a little imagination and time. The main thing for me has been that I really enjoyed doing this and it was a pleasure rather than a chore.

Happy creating!

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