Everyone loves a good life hack… right?!
Today I’m sharing a few WALL ART home decor hacks that I’ve slowly been discovering since I moved into my first home. While I do have a few meaningful art pieces and photographs sprinkled throughout our home, I still like to add in some easy and affordable items to fill in the gaps and add more life to my pretty basic white walls.
But first, let’s backtrack a little.
The majority of these hacks/ideas stemmed from my plan to create a “gallery wall” on a large space where our TV would go up in the living room (which is more often than not, the focal point of our home, lol). The TV would have to be hung slightly off center to accommodate for furniture placement, layout, etc. so from the start I knew it was the perfect place to start designing the gallery wall of my Pinterest dreams.
After pinning and re-pinning and dreaming of more pins for weeks, I finally honed in on a theme for my gallery wall: abstract art, patterns, and botanical images in very muted/natural colors. I knew my 3 large maps would be the focal point of the wall, and really just wanted some pieces around them to act as supporting elements.
But, it wasn’t until I was in the middle of putting together said gallery wall that I realized some of the challenges. Coordinating colors, frames, sizing, and still keeping true to my home decor style with pieces that didn’t clash started to feel like a major undertaking. Not to mention, I didn’t want to spend a month’s worth of groceries on one 8×10 art print that I only sort-of liked. So, I waited it out.
As a newbie gallery-wall-ista, I went about things backwards, and figured I would just get the frames first, and then find the art to go in them afterwards. Silly me thought the finding art part would be easy… wrong!
The following “hacks” came to me as I was searching for artwork to place in some of my still-empty (sad looking) frames.
ONE
Gift Bag Art:
This is exactly as it sounds… using a pretty gift bag (or wrapping paper) as wall art. The next time you’re at Homegoods, TJmaxx, Marshalls, etc. stop by the stationery aisle and browse the gift bag selection. I often find at least one or two bags that I deem “too cute to just end up in someone’s garbage after the party’s over.”
Then, all you have to do is cut the bag down to fit the size of your frame and hang! As a bonus, they are usually around $3- $4, depending on the size, and often even have some sort of eye catching element like metallic foil or a watercolor paper-like texture.
TWO
Framed Fabric:
This one might sound a little crazy but stay with me. Have you ever bought a clothing item MOSTLY because of it’s pretty fabric that really caught your eye? Yahh, duh! Ok, so here’s my theory: if it’s good enough to wear, it’s good enough to hang.
In my case, I already had a bin of pretty fabrics sitting in a closet just waiting to be made into something, so I pulled a few out and found the patterns and colors actually worked really well with the overall vibe of my gallery wall.
If your fabric bin is non-existent or simply doesn’t come through for this type of project, you can take a trip to Joanns and browse their fabric section, which is typically organized by season, pattern type, and color… so you can even make a bee-line straight to whatever aisle compliments your current home decor. The fun part about framing fabric is that you get to choose the exact part of the pattern you want to display and cut it down to fit perfectly in your frame. I find this fabric framing hack especially useful for frames that have unconventional sizing, ie. exaggerated rectangles or even round frames. lf you purchase 1/2 a yard of fabric, it should be enough to fill a frame up to 18” in size!
Another fabric wall art hack is to GO THRIFTING! Thrift stores often have tons of pretty fabrics scattered throughout the racks, and the best part about this is that you don’t have to worry about the garment fitting or care about things like broken zippers or frayed hems. Essentially, you are looking for large blouses, dresses, maxi skirts, even linens, that have pretty colors/patterns that could work in your space. This option might even be more affordable than buying fabric off the roll, so you don’t have to feel bad about cutting up an expensive garment. (PS- fabric scissors ARE worth buying…there’s nothing worse than ruining a nice piece of fabric with your crusty dull kitchen drawer scissors… just had to get that off my chest! LOL)
THREE
Minimal DIYS: this one may not be everyone’s cup of tea. But if you’re into the look of minimalistic decor with simple lines and shapes, there are tons of easy DIY projects (on PInterest, of course) that will take you less than 1 hour to complete, but still add a bold statement to your wall. My personal favorite minimal DIY’s can be made with simple materials like embroidery hoops, macrame rings, wooden dowels, yarn, and some good old fashioned paint + paper.
Here are some easy DIY ideas:
Use gold macrame rings, black yarn, and some scrap pieces of chain to create a geometric piece like the one I have to the left of the TV.
Use a wooden embroidery hoop wrapped in yarn and create a long layered boho piece like the one I made for my office in this DIY.
Combine embroidery hoops, yarn, and a wooden dowel to make a larger statement piece like the one I have hanging in my foyer.
Grab some paper (watercolor, card stock, or whatever you have on hand), some black paint, and create sketchy lines or shapes to make a super EASY abstract minimal art piece.
FOUR
Magazine/Book Cutouts: (TRIGGER WARNING: stop reading if it pains you to cut or tear things out of books or magazines lol) This hack isn’t really anything new or innovative, but I figured I would still include it because I do use this “trick” on occasion. My favorite place to find interesting or frame-worthy pieces of content is old magazines, large coffee table books, and record covers. If you don’t just happen to have these laying around the house, or want to find affordable options, head to the thrift store (again lol).
These 3 pages from an old 1990’s fashion magazine made the perfect neutral/moody addition to my office:
And this simple wavy line art print is actually a page from an adult coloring book:
So that’s it! Those are some of my favorite home decor hacks for wall art. The main point is to think outside the box and find pretty things in unconventional places.
Here’s a final look at how my large gallery wall turned out. The items left un-labeled are actual art prints that I purchased in stores, from local artists, or from my own shop. (The three large city maps are from Mapiful.)
Thanks so much for stopping by!
Xx Laura
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