10 DIY Wall Art Ideas for 2011

10 Affordable DIY wall art ideas for home or office

Are you tired of looking at a blank wall in your living room, bedroom or dining area? Wondering what to put on your walls? Choose from 10 simple and affordable DIY wall art ideas and make your walls happy.

Basket Weave Canvas Art

  1. Kitchen Wall Art Ideas http://newcombhome.blogspot.com/2011/03/useful-art-for-kitchen.html from New Comb Home.
  2. Easy DIY Canvas Arthttp://witandwhistle.com/2011/01/12/easy-peasy-painting/ from Wit and Whistle.
  3. CD Jewel Case Wall Art http://designdazzle.blogspot.com/2009/09/wonderful-diy-wall-art.html
  4. Raised Text Canvas Art http://virginiaandcharlie.blogspot.com/2011/07/canvas-project.html from Virginia and Charlie.
  5. Recycled Plates http://www.casasugar.com/DIY-Hang-Plates-Wall-4389690 from Casa Suger.
  6. Pyramid 3 Piece Canvas Art http://www.womansday.com/Articles/Home/Crafts/DIY-Decorating-Pyramid-Painting.html from Womens Day.
  7. Wall Paper Art http://www.allyou.com/budget-home/crafts/take-new-approach-wallpaper-00400000055149/ from All You.
  8. Vintage Art Signs http://www.bhg.com/decorating/do-it-yourself/wall-art/diy-wall-art/
    From BHG.
  9. Make Your Own Abstract Wall Art http://ohhappyday.com/2011/07/how-to-make-abstract-art/ from Oh Happy Day.
  10. Nature Wall Art Idea http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/04/driftwood_wall_art.html from CraftZine.

Of course, you could just buy your art online. But how much fun is that? Now get to work and share your incredible creation in the comments section below or on our Google + page / Facebook page.

P.S. Need more ideas? Try this book by Gerard Smith

Halloween Decorating Ideas

Classical Halloween Decorating Ideas

Decorating for Halloween can be a spooky idea for some people, but with a little planning and preparation, your Halloween decorations can be exciting and fun! Make your guests and neighbors scream this year with these simple Halloween decoration ideas.

Skeleton Tapestry

While many people will purchase plastic glow in the dark skeletons and pumpkins for their front yard this year, with some planning you can find Halloween décor that will last year after year. Our skeleton tapestry is one such item. Cast on a background of evil bats, this skeleton tapestry will be sure to frighten year after year. No bones about it, skeletons creep out even the boldest visitors by reminding us of our own fragility.

Skeleton

Halloween Tapestry Scroll

Sometimes the best Halloween décor is nondirective and obscure. Blacks and grays can oftentimes set a mood that creates suspense and terror. Adding simple accessories including gourds, jack o lanterns, and tall candles are a great way to transform your living room into a haunted castle. Add in this intricate Halloween scroll motif inspired by the autumnal spirits of Halloween and enjoy the spell you cast on this all hallows eve.

Halloween Scroll Black - Holiday

Happy Haunting!

Five Wall Art Ideas For Kids’ Rooms

Five Wall Art Ideas for your Child’s Bedroom.

Our kids’ rooms are often neglected when it comes to wall art. Toys, clothes and bookshelves find their places, but the walls often remain bare or host temporary paper posters selected on a moment’s impulse.

Recently, my fifteen-year-old ran across a 1985 National Geographic with that famous photograph of a green-eyed Afghan girl on the cover. He was astonished and flooded with nostalgia. He’d had that picture on the wall of his room when he was a toddler. He had named the girl Lala and assumed she was someone we knew. Watching him gaze at the cover of the magazine, obviously full of memories and emotions, the impact of wall art on a kid became clear to me. Here are five ideas to get your creative contemplations going:

Top 5 wall art ideas for kids.

  1. Portraits. Like “Lala’s”, which is famous because the human face is universally fascinating. The other two pieces of wall art that my son was most fond of were portraits. One of a heavily-jowled male orangutan and the other of a weathered cowboy in New Mexico.
  2. Girl with Pearl Earing

  3. Go ahead and think “theme”, but don’t let the local discount store tell you what “theme” means. Instead of quirky owl stick-ons or a wall-paper border of cartoon cars, consider truly artful renderings of owls (or birds in general) and sketches of cars out of the design or engineering studio. Kids are surrounded with simplistic and whimsical stuff, but they are capable of appreciating more sophisticated materials that might have a place in their lives and homes for years to come.
  4. Hiawatha (Train)

  5. If you have already chosen a theme for your child’s room, look for canvas wall art to complement it: tropical sunsets for beach themes, savannah landscapes for African animal themes, a Degas for a tea party theme, or a trio of abstracts to go with your tween’s newfound love of edgy urban rock.
  6. Tree Silhouette Canvas Art

  7. Look among the abstract expressionists and modern abstract painters for pieces that used bold colors and simple geometric shapes to compose landscapes and still-life studies. These pieces are equally at home in a nursery or gallery.
  8. Inkling of a Dream

  9. Canvas wall art often comes in segments: a single image framed in two to five separate panels. Creative arrangements of furniture or unconventional use of a corner can turn a single art purchase into a room fully decorated in a fun but tasteful and lasting way.

Dreamscape  Canvas Art

There are few things you can give your child now that you are likely to see still in use when she has children of her own. Quality canvas wall art is one of them.

Wall Art Ideas Video

Wall Art Ideas for Your Home or Office

Wondering what type of wall art to buy in 2011?

Need ideas about how to decorate your home? Enjoy this wall art video series featuring the wide array of wall art ideas and styles. Whether you’re looking for new canvas art ideas for your living room or just want a new tapestry to accent you bedroom décor, Charlotte Home Furnishings can help. Here are 15 wall art ideas from some of our most popular items from the 2010 – 2011 shopping season. So let your imagination run wild and find a new art piece to make your home look amazing this year.

Metal Wall Crosses

Metal Wall Art Crosses

Enjoy our new wall art video about religious metal wall crosses for your home or office. For more information and to shop the largest selection of wall art decor visit us on the web at http://www.saveontapestries.com/tapestries/Wall-art.htm

P.S. Don’t forget to enter our Facebook Wall Art Contest for your chance to win a free Vincent Van Gogh Canvas Print valued at over $94.00

Simply visit our Facebook contest page at http://www.facebook.com/saveontapestries and enter your information. You can increase your chances of winning by sharing this contest on Facebook, Twitter or on your own blog.

Good luck!

Charlotte

A Short History of Abstract Wall Art

What is Abstract Wall Art?

Prior to the 1890’s, most art was “depictive”, meaning that artists attempted to reproduce objects, people, animals, and landscapes. Art movements influenced the nature of style and method, from the highly realistic and detailed portraits of the Baroque era to the diffuse, “overall impression” trend appropriately named Impressionism. Abstract art moves away from realism, sometimes just a bit, sometimes entirely. In its many and varied forms, Abstract Art is the 20th century’s sweeping contribution to art history.

Abstract Autumn Tapestry

Modern Abstract Autumn Tapestry

How Abstract Art Evolved

The phrase “abstract wall art” does not tell you much about what to expect from an art piece. In its earliest forms (Cezanne, Matisse), Abstract Art was characterized by the free use of color: blue hair, orange faces, pink plants. Techniques and styles very quickly evolved. By 1910, Cubism was in full swing (Picasso, Braque) where the subjects of the works were recognizable, but in no way realistically portrayed. At the same time this movement was underway, Expressionism, which includes a great degree of abstraction (Munch, Van Gogh) was developing. By 1920, artists (Kandinsky) were throwing out the whole idea of recreating real subjects and began working with geometric shapes and fields of color. Others (Dali) were grossly distorting everyday objects and placing them in unlikely and even crazy contexts. By 1950, even these “forms” were abandoned and Jackson Pollock was simply throwing paint at canvas with arresting results.

Whipped Abstract Canvas Art

Three Piece Abstract Canvas Art

Abstract wall art has become widely popular and indeed made wall art more accessible to more people than any previous art movement. People of all economic classes could find abstract wall art pieces that worked with their décor, tastes and style. Displaying wall art was no longer the privilege of the elite. Requiring none of the carefully practiced techniques taught by masters, many of us are able to create our own abstract wall art.

4 Piece Abstract Canvas Art

4 Piece Abstract Canvas Art

The Future of Abstract Wall Art

Abstract art gives people permission to define art as they saw it. If an enormous splash of orange appeals and evokes a valued feeling, it can be called art and hung on the wall. Op Art (Zazeela, Le Parc) stimulated and entertained throughout the 1960’s and 70’s by confounding the viewer optically. Washes of pastels, behind silhouettes of recognizable figures hung over many a sofa in the 1980’s. In the digital age, distorted and altered photographs are a very popular art form, reflective of the earliest post-Impressionist Abstract Art.

Contemporary Wall Art Ideas

Contemporary Wall Art Ideas for Your Home or Apartment

Why choose Modern Wall Art?

  1. It’s fresh. Its “living art”, produced in your lifetime, on subjects relevant to your experience.
  2. It’s incredibly varied.
  3. It’s fashionable. If your house and your furniture is less than 80 years old, it makes sense that your art would be too. You’re not wearing pantaloons or a heavy gown, so why should your walls?

Contemporary wall art, unlike other art movements, is characterized by its refusal to adopt a common style. Rules are shunned. Serious art no longer conforms to methods established by schools. Collages of angular color blocks, realistic renderings of landscapes, letterpress botanicals, airbrushed whales swimming through far-away galaxies and computer-altered photographs of famous figures are all Contemporary Art, if the work was done in your lifetime.

Mixed Intervals

Contemporary art can reflect more than your sense of aesthetics. Social and political concerns are frequent themes, offering art that some people feel is meaningful in a world of ninety-second videos, sound bites and 140-word messages.

So, with all that variety in style, subject and theme, how does a person choose what to put on their walls?

Are you a social activist? A well-rendered event poster surrounded by images related to your cause can create an attractive assembly. Similar mats and frames will tie separate pieces together.

Bleeding Aspen Leaf Wall Art

Inspired by nature? The possibilities are endless. My dentist’s waiting room contains seven photographs, identical in subject (a group of aspen trees), but each unique in how they are digitally altered. The contrast between the uniformity and playful treatments of the subject works very well to say: “Nature is valuable to me as a venue for fun.” A friend has used un-planed cedar to frame an array of leaves, cones, mushroom spore prints, twisted twigs and even dried seaweed for a rustic, but elegant collection that works very well on the walls of her mud room.

Urban-lovers can readily find appealing graffiti-style wall art, black and white architectural photos, skyline panels, music posters, or just angular abstract pieces. Corporate logos and brand graphics are also sources of clean, edgy art that reflects a high-energy, contemporary mindset.

In love with a particular culture? Try a collection of images from that culture’s cuisine or distinctive dress for something different from the standard poster prints of famous landmarks. Little things distinguish a culture: look for postage stamps or colorful currency that can be assembled in a frame or enlarged at a copy shop.

Asian Simplicity Canvas Art

Contemporary wall art is about what makes the individuals who make it or buy it unique. Unique methods, unique subjects, unique treatments. If you like it, hang it!

Facebook Wall Art Contest

Online Wall Art Contest at SaveOnTapestries.com

Enter our new wall art contest and be entered to win the Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries Wall Art By Vincent Van Gogh.

Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries

To enter our contest, follow these three easy steps:

  1. Enter your name and email and earn your first 100 points
  2. Share on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social network and earn more points
  3. Add our badge to you blog to earn even more points

The person with the most points on August 31 wins the prize!

It’s that simple. The more points you earn the better your chances of winning. Furthermore, there are no limits on sharing or tweeting about the contest. So what are you waiting for? Enter our wall art contest today and start sharing this great contest for you chance to win!

About the Canvas Wall Art Piece

The famous Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh originally painted the Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries in 1888; the “Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries” is one of many important works of art painted by Vincent that year. This masterful reproduction of a European classic is sure to be a centerpiece in any room. This masterful reproduction of a European classic is sure to be a centerpiece in any room.

Good Luck!

trinitary wall tapestry

Trinitary Wall Tapestry

The Trinitary tapestry by Natasha Wescoat is just the brush tip of many successful and award-winning works of art displayed in collections worldwide. As a tapestry, the Trinitary captures the essence of vibrancy through infused colors and poises of energetic movement. Easily the best conversation starter for any home entertaining guests, this work of art inspires its viewers to find personal symbolism and meaning through its artist’s abstract vision.

Trinitary

As a young American, Natasha Wescoat has been named “Emerging Artist and Trendsetter” by Art Business News. Her application of bright colors, spirals and swirls is reminiscent of Gustav Klimpt who has been her inspiration towards the lighter side of life. What makes this tapestry unique is its modern and present day production by a living and socially active young woman. By simply visiting her Twitter page, one can learn the method of her inspiration and focus by simply recognizing the environment one asserts their creativity within should be “quiet, calm and cold” rather than “crowded [and] complicated.”

This colorful tapestry brings a whimsical landscape of three trees on hilltops with circular leaves and stars surrounding them. The elements of her artistry portray a unique vision of a fluid and interconnected universe, while illuminating the child’s unprejudiced view in all of us. The Trinitary tapestry therefore can complement any room in the home, whether showcased above an inviting fireplace or adorning the walls of a child’s playroom.