8 Great Sources for Affordable Art

This week, Corey has been working on organizing our staging inventory and taking photos of our art, accessories and furniture to make it easier for me to plan storyboards for each listing. It's a huge job, but will make our lives much easier once it's done. To give you some idea of the immensity of our project, pictured above is most (not all ) of the art. There's still furniture, rugs, accessories, throw pillows (which are so numerous they form a category of their own!) and more! 

A note about artists: While I'm posting affordable sources here, I'm all for supporting artists and practiced artists deserve to be paid top dollar for their work. While splurging on a few really special pieces is great, I think most of us need some budget-friendly options for the rest of our walls.

Many of you ask me where I get my staging art and I'm here to share some of my favourite affordable sources:

1. HomeSense almost always has some cool options and I've noticed some amazing nursery art canvasses there lately. I get a lot of my wall art that I use for staging from HomeSense. The two drawbacks are that you're unlikely to find something truly unique and that they don't post inventory online so you may have to check different stores to find what you want.

2. Etsy not only has originals and prints in all different media, you can also search for downloadable art that you can have printed and framed or mounted yourself to save on shipping costs! 

3. Society6 is a really cool website where you can shop for art prints but also textiles, phone cases, mugs and many other items printed with art. 

4. Target! It should be no surprise that Target is on my list. I love crossing the border to take a look at their goods but they also ship to Canada!

5. Structube is probably my second largest source of staging items that aren't vintage! 

6. Ebay can often be a great source for vintage paintings. I love giving a new life to vintage art and I've purchased lovely old paintings and drawings from ebay and had them framed.

7. Juniper Print Shop allows you to buy prints (They even have special sizes to fit in Ikea frames!) or digital files! You'll see one of their prints in my future staging photos.

8. Wayfair has everything. It can be a great source but you do have to sort through an impressive, yet overwhelming volume of inventory. The yellow framed print in the photo above is from Wayfair.

Enjoy refreshing your space for spring! For those of you expecting tax refunds, maybe this will give you some inspiration! If you do end up using one of these sources, please send me a photo of what you buy. I love seeing them!

Special thanks to my real estate photographer, Thea Menagh for the staging photos.

DIY Watercolour Napkins

Last week, I was excited to attend the first event in a "Be the Maker" workshop series hosted by Melissa of The Sweet Escape at West Elm.  It's rare these days for me to get out for a night that doesn't involve work so it was fun to get to be crafty, sip some grapefruit juice and chat about topics other than real estate, babies and renovations for a change.

The event was photographed by Andrea of Personally Andrea so be sure to check out her blog for more pics!

West Elm in Liberty Village was already decorated for the holidays.  It felt festive and it made me excited for the holidays!

Our tables were set up with craft supplies (including Bic markers) and a set of four white Cross Dye Basic Napkins.  They were so lovely in basic white, it was almost difficult to dye them...

Before the seminar began, I couldn't help browsing some of the Christmas displays in the store.  I was tempted to get that stork ornament...

And, I've been obsessed with their origami coffee table for years!  I even remember mentioning it in a post that I published the day we moved into our new/old house.  Oh, how I love it!

Okay, enough window shopping!  Back to the workshop:

As I mentioned, Melissa of The Sweet Escape ran the tutorial and she is super creative.  She wisely had scraps of cotton so that we could practice before moving on to our nice napkins.

There was a rainbow of colours to choose from but I opted to stay within one colour family.  Unsurprisingly, I chose blues and turquoise hues, since they're always my favourites.

We began by drawing starburst or (in my case) snowflake patterns on the fabric.

We then used eyedroppers to drip isopropyl alcohol on the fabric to allow the dye to spread.  The amount of alcohol dripped, determines how much the dye spreads.

Here are my finished napkins, which will be set after a vinegar wash at home.  I love that they're all so different!

I think they'd look great as a compliment to a winter place setting!  This was an easy craft requiring just fabric, markers and rubbing alcohol.  I love the finished effect and it totally makes me want to dye a blanket for little Bruiser.  

What do you think?  Would you make these at home?

Art for Our Bedroom (My Side)

While Corey works on the upstairs bathroom, I thought I might put together some ideas for our master bedroom.  I know not everyone will like the idea of patterned walls in a place of sleep (too stimulating), Corey and I actually like them and think they'll add a bit of fun to our tiny space.  I like the idea of keeping this space fresh and hip. 

I plan to use this post by Ducklings in a Row (photo below) as inspiration.

Our own bedroom (below- Please ignore where I still need to patch around the new light fixture and switch.) has gold light fixtures and a jewel toned (ours is purple) headboard and I think the spots will look great.

I want our bedroom to reflect our individual tastes, and I've never been a huge fan of matchy-matchy (Disclaimer: I actually really like it in other homes but it drives me crazy in my own space.) so I told Corey we should each choose our own art to hang on our side of the bed. 

Think about it: If two children shared a room, they would often each have their own place on the wall to hang their own favourite things... So why should two adults with different taste not do the same thing?  And yes, I am aware that I just compared us to children. ;)  We'll try to keep it consistent in terms of the number and scale of prints, but aside from that, we can each choose anything we like!

To be honest, I think it's kind of fun for both of us to be able to choose art without consulting or compromising with the other!

I've been thinking about my own side.  It will be nice to finish the electrical and drywalling in the bedroom so that I can paint.  Right now, I have a giant calendar on the wall next to my bed and it's filled with appointments and meetings.  It's convenient to keep it in the bedroom, but I know it should be in my office.  Painting will be a great excuse to move it.

I wanted to see how my art would look against such busy walls.  I was worried it may not be strong enough, so I free-handed some spots in photoshop:.

And then collected prints from my wishlist to photoshop against the background.

The first print, by Clare Elsaesser feels moody and yet peaceful to me.  I love the colours.

Tara Andris paints clouds that actually seem to shimmer, since she uses metallic foil in the background.  Wouldn't this be like having a window next to your bed?

We already own one of Louis Helbig's award winning aerial volleyeball photos, but I also love his works that are more rooted in nature.

How do you think they'll look?  What would your artwork choices look like?

Would you and your partner ever give each other carte blanche to decorate a different side of the same room?  I'm curious about the art Corey will choose.  Do you think we're brave or just plain crazy?  ;)

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What Does the Fox (Mask) Say?

Last spring, I wrote about a good friend who would be painting something for us to hang in our new/old house.  At the time, her instructions were "Nothing too weird!" because Corey prefers his art a little less shocking than I do.  I, on the other hand, wanted something meaningful with lots of symbolism.

We knew back in the spring that the woman would have a fox mask, and I wanted a few other symbolic items.  My friend managed to keep the painting relatively simple, while working in many thought provoking elements.  Even the concrete ledge,  theatre curtain and the way she's casting the mask away hold meaning for us.  I was thrilled when Corey liked the painting as much as I did.  It's dramatic and gorgeous with a depth which is hard to capture in photographs but I'm thrilled to give her a prominent home in our dining room.  In person, the colours are quite different.  The blue background is very deep and the dress underlay is gold, not yellow.

We'll need to remove the plate rail (which we were planning to do anyway, since it's crooked.)  in order to hang it at a proper height, but it will look perfect at the head of the table.

Art is so personal, but we are thrilled with the painting and the fact that it was a gift from a dear and talented friend makes it even more special.  We're so excited to introduce our newest dining room accessory.  I think it will be perfect against the deep green wall colour we plan to paint our dining room eventually.  What do you think?

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Changes Small and Large...

Remember my Hallway Reveal? 

 

Well, when I took another look at the pictures, the room felt a little off-balance to me.  Some commenters picked up on the same thing and suggested that I paint the white mirror to add some colour to the room.  While this wasn't the right solution for me, they were definitely on to something.  I love all the art close to the staircase, but I wanted a little more colour close to the door.

When I began painting my own art for the space, I used a painting I've owned for years (I remember it on the wall of the teeny Toronto rental I lived in before I bought the condo.) for inspiration.  It was painted by Aja Apa-Soura and I have always loved her use of colour.  Since her work inspired my use of colour, I thought I'd hang one of her pieces across from the mirror in the hallway.

 

I was surprised by how well the colours work with the art and accessories already in the space and I love that I get to see the painting both directly, and reflected in the mirror.

I had a large scale piece of art in the condo, which has been sitting in my mother's house (Thanks for storing it, mom.) while we renovated the living room.  I use it sometimes to stage client's houses because it is so vibrant, modern and huge.  I also used it in our condo dining room while it was listed.  I NEVER thought I'd hang it in the new/old house though, and here's why:

It's time that I confessed that I am a bit of an art snob.  I hated this piece on principal because it is mass produced and cost me $25 at a warehouse sale.  This snobbery is not my most (and unfortunately, not my least) attractive quality, and I'm challenging myself to embrace a new rule in the new/old house: If you love it, display it!

Despite the lack of pedigree, I'll have to admit that I'm drawn to this canvas print.  I have used these colours repeatedly in our hallway and living room, and even I can admit that it works perfectly in the room!  At some point, you need to just shrug and own it, right?

So that's how a $25 mass produced canvas print became the focal point of our living room.  Art faux-pas?  Perhaps.  ... But I sort of love it!

Would you hang mass produced art, or are you snobby about it like me? ;)

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