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Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Art?

Well, I am not sure exactly that I would call it art, it's certainly artful though. I am constantly faced with the design dilemma of what to do to cover big walls, whether they be stairways, double height rooms or whatever, especially when working on a tight budget, so I offer a few solutions that have worked for me, I hope that some will work for you.
  • In the image above I bought an inexpensive poster then took it to a printer and had them enlarge it, in 9 pieces on canvas. I then stretched them over frames and hung them as a mosaic, I think the result is kind of cool. This technique could easily be done with any poster, or a cool photo, or even a magazine ad (perhaps even a blog posting :) ).
  • Almost anything used out of context can be seen as wall decoration, perhaps old farm equipment (rakes, shovels etc), garage sales are great sources for this.
  • A collection of smaller things works well too. I have a friend who collected small oil paintings on E-bay of portraits of women, then hung them all close together, I think it looks stellar and cost next to nothing.
  • While shopping swap meets and flea markets, what about a group of children's chairs.
  • I have spoken in the past about ethnic textiles and how much I love them, they can be a very economical way to cover a wall, a Kuba cloth or a Sari, or if you are more local minded a great quilt (I am a huge fan of the quilts of Hawaii, they are graphic and feel modern). You can also tea stain too, if you want a more old-world feel.

Good Luck!

4 comments:

momma j lee ♥ said...

that's a great idea. i do that as well, especially with personal favorites be it movie posters, a post card of photo of a vacation travelled ... i love blowing photos up, cutting them apart and matching them back up on large empty walls. another thing i do since i'm a photo lover is to do a huge photo wall or cover it with texture.

thanks for sharing!

Butterdad said...

Hi Mark,

I found your site a couple of weeks ago, and have to say I like it a lot. I'm a realtor in Arizona, and I'm always looking for inexpensive ways to make my clients' homes look better than their neighbors'.. This is a GREAT idea that can be completely personalized to taste. ;-)

I love it. Keep 'em coming.

-Chris

Mark Cutler said...

Thanks Chris, well I hope you keep checking back. I went to your website, very impressive. I have never done any work in Arizona (I have worked in a few other nearby states), but I am like that you find this helpful.

Mark Cutler said...

Thank J. Lee, yes the computer has made so much possible, especially in refards to photography, I am sure we are only beginning to see what can be done.