16 Outstanding Wall Art Ideas For Your Home

I am always looking for creative ways to add personal touches to my home decor.  I really hate purchasing cookie cutter artwork from chain stores so I tend to use personal items such as photos and memorabilia from family vacations (you can check out a few of the things I've done around my home here).

I've put together a few of my favorite Pinterest finds with some really great ideas to help you make your own unique artwork.  So many creative people out there with lots of versatile projects ready to be personalized to fit your own decor style.

This is great and one of many I'd like to try.  They've used screws to make house numbers but there are so many other designs you could do.  How about mixing 'n matching the colors of screws to make a cool design.  So many possibilities.

Home Decor Ideas

This is a great way to involve the kids, but as you all know coloring ain't just for kids anymore so get out your markers and make some wall art!

When my kids were in grade school they had an excellent art teacher and made some awesome pieces that I've saved and had laminated.  My goal was to frame them and put them on display.  Hasn't happened but I'll treasure those pieces of artwork forever.  This could be a great summer project and make for interesting wall art as well, win/win.

agirlandagluegun.com

Check your local convention center for the next Jewelry/Bead Show and you'll likely find some gorgeous agate slices to incorporate into artwork (one year I found antler slices and seed pods that were really beautiful as well).  I've also seen slices made into light fixtures (sconces and chandeliers) that are simply amazing, that's on my to-do list (which is getting rather long these days).

hometalk.com
Framed Agate Art

This is just incredible.  You could frame out mirror squares and "age" them to get a similar look.  I've always wanted to make large mirror from broken pieces that have been applied as a mosaic.  I've gotten so far as to purchase the mirror squares (that was years ago) but I've not gotten around to my project yet.  Sigh.....

Summer Field Design

What about framing some of your children's favorite game boards.  I really wish I'd saved the boys games, the colors are great and the memories are even better!

babygizmo.com

Such a great idea.  You could do so many things with this and portray a variety of different messages.  Love it.

somethingturquoise.com

Such an easy project and you could tailor the design to your liking.  What a great way to get oversized artwork for relatively inexpensive and quick!

http://www.makinghomebase.com

Now you know I love this!  Really, really love!

thedailylady

Look at what great artwork can come from a single calendar.  I did this in my dining room with a floral calendar I found at the dollar store.  Calendars are so inexpensive and you can completely personalize the look to fit your style.  Such a good idea!

thecreativityexchange.com

This is an interesting way to change out artwork on a regular basis and you could personalize the rope/cording with a variety of colors to suit your tastes.  Children's artwork, photographs, school papers, christmas cards, think of all the things you could display.  It'd be a great "memory board" for wedding cards or a vacation station to fill with memorabilia.  Think I might have to do this somewhere.

st-raphaels.com

I really love to play with corners.  This is really interesting and a great way to add a little whimsy.

carlaaston.com

That has got to be my favorite wallpaper of all time.  Not sure I could live with it (I'm getting dizzy if I look at it too long already) but I just love it.  Forget about artwork, just add an amazing, bold accent wall.

homedit.com

Large wall art can be a little tricky and difficult to find (and afford for that matter).  You can easily make your own with fabric or papers.  Not sure which this is but I'm betting its a shower curtain.  Keep your eyes open for curtains, tablecloths or sheeting that catches your eye.  Any of it could be turned into great oversized artwork for your home.

thedesignfiles.net

I've tried this before on wood valances, turned out great.  Find a stencil you love and do some relief work.

pinterest.com

What about displaying a collection.  I really love these trays made into a wreath, cute!  What about a grouping of black or red floral vintage trays.  I am planning an accent wall at the new shop using vinyl records.  You could take just about anything you've got a lot of and turn it into a great gallery display.

itsy-bits-and-pieces

So cute, cut out any design you want, frame and display.  Keep your eyes open at your local thrift shop or antique mall and you'll be amazed how reasonably you can find a book with beautiful prints you could cut out and frame as well.

spiderschildren.tumblr.com

I hope you've been inspired to get creative and find ways to personalize your space with fun art work you've had a hand in making.  For lots more ideas check out my Pinterest Board entitled DIY- For the Walls and then do your own search.  You might just find your next project.

A Few Quick Ideas to Decorate Your Walls

Here's the link

I can't even count how many homes I've gone into and seen one tiny little picture over the sofa or three tiny pictures evenly spread out.....UGH! 

Fill up that space, above a sofa roughly 2/3 of the length of the sofa should be filled up and eye level should be the middle of your display.  Doesn't have to be one large piece,  many small pieces work great.  Take your cue from the photo above and why not do a photo collage? 

Here's some ways I've filled up wall space in my home with photo collages.  We've lived here six years and I haven't tired of any of them yet but when I do it's an easy fix, just change out the photos.

These are pencil drawings that I found on one of our family vacations out west.

This is a calendar I found at the dollar store.  Think of the possibilities, so much variety to choose from.

I always wanted to paint a mural on this wall but never got to it.  My grandmother was coming for a visit and I hadn't hung any of her paintings yet so, voila', solved the problem of a blank wall and the wrath of grammy in one fell swoop!

I love to round corners so I added these mirrors to an otherwise unused corner in the dining room.

This is going up the stairs, I made it our "vacation" wall.  Of course I've never finished it, but you know how that goes.  I hung the map first (roughly 6 years ago now) with the intention of framing it out.  Someday!  I added the pictures from various trips and the masks are from Puerto Rico (tagged along with my hubby on a business trip).  Great reminders of the fun we've had over the years.

This is the boy's loft, wish I had a better picture.  It's mainly composed of baby pictures with a few school age tossed in.  I will probably never change it out, one of my favorite places in the house (the other is my coffee table in the living room that I decoupaged with family pictures... best spots in the house)

So, find something you love, group things together to take up more space, and fill 'er up!

Building The Chirping Frog- Part 8

Our newest adventure is moving right along, before you know it we'll be opening The Chirping Frog, an antique, collectibles, vintage, home decor, furniture, artisan wares and more shopping mall.  I am also planning to host classes in a variety of fun topics; such as mosaic, hypertufa, jewelry making, paper arts, etc.  Any artists out there looking to teach a class?  I am so excited and a little terrified all at the same time.  Here are some links if you're interested in following our progress:

• Part 1- Clean-up
• Part 2- Dirt Work
• Part 3- Tons of Rock & Footings 
• Part 4- Foundation Walls
• Part 5- Foundation Walls Poured
• Part 6- Forming Bathroom Walls
• Part 7- Bathroom Walls Poured

When I left you in Part 7 we'd just poured the bathroom walls along with the pillars for the front porch and rock work was about to begin.  It's been a crazy week.  We spent the first of it removing forms and cleaning up.  We made a little boo-boo here that we need to fix before the "cap" for the bathrooms gets poured.  The plan was to leave the top layer of forms all the way around the outside to support the "cap" pour.  Well, we got a little ahead of ourselves and pulled one wall before we realized (remembered), duh!  Not sure we'll be able to get them back on but that's a job to figure out another day.

Once the forms were cleared out we started messing with the rock pile left from Part 3 (when over 700 ton of rock was delivered).  That took a couple days.

You can see in the picture above that we're low across nearly half of the building.  That's about the time the compactor died.  Perfect timing.  Saturday morning I show up to find it in pieces and we headed off to St. Louis Nu-Way to pick up a rental.  A rider at that!  I cannot even tell you how happy I am about that.

Here's my new toy for the week.

On Sunday Jason continued working with rock piles while Caleb and I shoveled rock into the bathroom area and got it compacted and ready to go.  Did I mention I really hate shoveling rock, don't know how others make it look so easy!

Monday I was on my own as they dumped rock and I spread it around as best I could so hubby could fix it when he got off work.  We spent a couple hours that night spreading and compacting preparing for, you guessed it, more rock on Tuesday.

Here's what it looks like after last night, it did get compacted one more time after this photo.  We are still roughly an inch low over the entirety of the building.  Another 60 ton of rock and it'll be ready.  Time for an electrician and plumber to do some rough-in work and we'll have a floor.  Bring on the framers!

Adorable Decoupaged Girls Desk

I have been playing with decoupage, a lot, lately.  I really love the technique and the finished result, definitely a learning process and not as "smooth" as I thought going in, but I really loving how things are turning out.

This little desk belonged to my grandmother.  It's in really good shape (except for a few knicks here and there) but had begun to yellow in weird ways.  I decided to give it a fresh coat of paint and add some interest with paper.

I primed it and added two coats of white paint.



 I plan to decoupage the inner portion of the drawers, leaving the outer edge white and change out the drawer pulls.

Here's the paper I chose.  I love the colors and the large floral print is gorgeous.  At first I was only going to cover the drawer fronts but then I thought, why not add a punch of color from the side as well.  Wow!  I really love the result.

I had a little help changing out the knobs, as always.  At least she let me get it done.  Usually she's tearing the tool or sandpaper right out of my hand.  I'm not allowed to work when she is present.

 New knobs, what a huge difference they make. 

Love the finished result. 

 Have you done any decoupage projects?  Would love to see what you've done.

9 Great Ways to Repurpose Tires

Sometime last week while taking our morning walk Pepper and I came across a bunch of tires somebody dumped in a ditch down the street from our house.  (Come on people, just because its in the country doesn't make it your dumping ground, geez!)  As we continued on our way all I could think of was, "Hmmm, what could I do with all those tires?"

On our way back I decided to have my son go back and get them for me.  Unfortunately, it was a school day and I didn't get a chance to talk with him till the next day.  Voila, they're gone.  Somebody else got to them first.  Probably for the best but look at all the cool things I could of done with them.

I need, I need!

 diyeverywhere.com

I think this one might be my favorite.  Incredibly creative.

diyfunideas.com

What kid wouldn't love this?  Check out Pinterest for all kinds of great kids playground ideas made with tires.

ideas2live4.com

Love this idea.  There's also plenty of examples of snowmen as well.

thewhoot.com

This could be great in a man-cave bathroom or shop.  What a great idea!

diytotry.com
Follow the link for lots more ideas.

Great bench!

The Top 10 of Anything and Everything

So cute for a little boys room.  Great way to display a collection.

hative.com

This looks like retaining walls (which is also a great idea) but its actually a solar home.  Wow!

ultimatesolarhomes.com

Cute planters.

moveiscarraro

Have you done anything interesting with used tires?  If you do a Pinterest search for repurposed tires you'll be shocked at how many cute things you can do.  I really must have one of the ruffled planters.  So cute!

Building the Chirping Frog- Part 7

Work is well underway for our newest adventure:  The Chirping Frog, an antique, collectibles, vintage, home decor, furniture, artisan wares and more shopping mall.  I also plan to host classes in a variety of fun topics; such as mosaic, hypertufa, jewelry making, paper arts, etc.  I am so excited and a little terrified all at the same time.  Here are some links if you're interested in following our progress:

• Part 1- Clean-up
• Part 2- Dirt Work
• Part 3- Tons of Rock & Footings 
• Part 4- Foundation Walls
• Part 5- Foundation Walls get poured
• Part 6- Forming Bathroom Walls

This week the bathroom walls and porch pillars were poured and now we're working on rock.  Lots and lots of rock.  My hands are still tingly from compacting last night and the fun has just begun.  Here's a look at what's been going on this week:

This is the monstrosity that will be the bathrooms.  Everyone was so nervous about this pour, at the last minute I overheard the guys say, "what's our escape plan if this things start to go?"  Thankfully, all went well and no escape plan was needed.

My Take on a Cable-Rail Staircase

When we built our home over 8 years ago, I had a vision for the staircase. I knew I didn't want a typical staircase, cable-rail was on my mind, so I priced it out. Yeah, that immediately vetoed the idea in my husband's mind. So, I started brainstorming and trying to think of something else that could give me the look I wanted.

We do our own concrete work. Never thought he'd say yes, but I suggested it anyway. What about Rebar? He knew how much that would cost so he happily said yes. Little did he know...

Here's the staircase partially framed. My father-in-law was making the posts and handrails. I just had to figure out how to finish it off.

My In-Laws spent a couple weeks with us while we worked on the staircase. Grandpa did an excellent job. (He also built the beams for us. Decorative only, not structural).

Here's a couple shots of it together before we got it stained. I opted for carpeting up the center. The kids have destroyed that so it's about time to do something different. We had the rebar powder coated (that gets expensive BTW).

Working on getting it stained

Here's the finished product. Grandpa wanted to fill in all the cracks in the wood. I had to do some quick talking to get him to leave them alone.

Another view. It is definitely not for everyone. I'm sure some will absolutely hate it, but I'm in love. It gave me the look I wanted. Reminds me every time I see it of the many fabulous concrete projects my husband and I have worked on. He actually could of saved some money (or at least broke even) with the cable rail system but this is very true to our style and personalities. Absolutely perfect!