Cheap art ideas for your home.

When trying to beautify our homes, whether for our own personal enjoyment or to increase the chances of a sale, we all hope to do it for the best prices possible. Here are some ideas on how to decorate the walls of your home that won’t cost you thousands of rands.

• Coaster art: Purchase inexpensive decorative coasters, some complimentary coloured cardboard and cheap frames. Paste the coasters onto the cardboard and place them in the frames. The hardest part of this project will be finding a frame hat has enough depth to accommodate the coaster, if possible take your coasters with you when you go to buy the frame. Otherwise, if you already have the frames, just know exactly how thick your coaster can be.
• Picture book art: Prints of original artworks can cost thousands of rands, a cheaper version of this is to purchase a book with good quality colour reproductions printed inside. This will likely cost a few hundred rand but you will have more artworks to choose from if you choose your book well. Simply cut out the picture you want and put it in a frame that fits. You could even create a colour border by pasting your picture onto cardboard first and then framing it.
• Collection art: Some people collect postcards others collect stamps, menus, number plates or anything that comes in a series. If your collection is not a valuable one why not display it in an artful manner by sticking it all to a primed piece of board and hanging it in the living room. This will create a colourful talking point that guests can inspect and find something new about each time they visit.

• Beautiful embroidery: There are such beautiful fabrics out there and some are made more so by being embroidered. Take a piece of your favourite embroidered fabric and an inexpensive frame. Stretch the fabric over the frames backing board and make sure it stays taut while you paste/secure it. Then just put it back in the frame. Personally I would remove the glass from the frame in order to display the fabrics texture better but this is up to you. The fabric does need to stay taut while it’s in the frame as it will start to crease and sag if it is not secured properly.

• Pressed flowers: Many of us remember our grandmothers pressing their favourite flowers in between the pages of heavy encyclopedias. Follow their example and press your own leaves and flowers to use in the creation of easy art. Take your pressed flowers and arrange them on different backgrounds that you then frame. For some extra impact make a series of four or more each differing slightly from the others. You could create a great focal point.

Have fun with your homemade art and don’t be afraid to experiment. Most of these ideas are so inexpensive you can afford some trial and error.