Posts Tagged ‘Family Photos’

Three Things You Can Do to a Bare Wall

January 21st, 2010

If you just moved into your new apartment, surely everything is all bare. It is up to you how to make things more homey and warm. Each person has a unique way on how to do this. Others would add metal wall art. Others would opt to buy some hanging plants and put it there. Some would do some abstract freehand painting so that their personal touch is there.

When you live far from your family, you can use this wall to put your family photos. This will serve as your big photo album and can look at it no matter what time of the day it is. In addition, you can mix and match the pictures to what your heart desires. One nice thing about this is that since the wall is big, surely, you can add quite a number of photos. You can have a big one in the middle and then just scatter the others around it. However, do not put too much on the wall because it might seem like one big clutter on the wall.

Aside from metal wall art, you can put your collection in the wall. For example, if you have a keychain collection, you can just put some hooks on the wall and let the keychain hang there. At least you can see how big your collection already is. More so, you can keep track of the designs that you already have to avoid any duplication. In addition, your collection can be a nice conversational piece for guests who come into your home. While you busy yourself in preparing foods and refreshment for them, they can talk about your keychain collection. » Read more: Three Things You Can Do to a Bare Wall

Why Canvas Art Prints Add Modern Life To Your Walls

December 19th, 2009

Wallpaper is so passé! Painting your walls is now a much more acceptable and fashionable way of making your home warm and welcoming. But blank painted walls only go half way. You have to put something on those blank walls. Small lamps, framed photos and other decorations are nice, but you need a gaudy amount to cover an adequate portion of the wall. Even a medium-size wall will “swallow” a handful of smaller decorations. Never fear, there is a solution. Canvas wall art is a fantastic way to use a minimal amount of decorations to add a maximum amount of color, warmth and excitement to your walls. For many people canvas wall art may carry a corny or outdated connotation conjuring up images of 1980s pop culture. But modern canvas wall art has evolved considerably, and vendors now offer a wide range of canvas art prints, photos on canvas, Banksy prints and acrylic-mounted art. So what’s the difference, what type of wall art fits you best? Let’s examine. Canvas Art PrintsCanvas art prints can range from contemporary art to classical art and comes in a variety of sizes, from large to really, really large. A nice, custom-ordered canvas print with contemporary art that will create a gentle and warm background image is ideal for most homes. At the other end of the spectrum, you could order a large contemporary art print that really “pops,” that will serve as an automatic conversation starter. And everything else in between. Photos on CanvasWhat if you really do want those family photos or special pictures of your loved ones on your walls, but they are just too small to work without plastering your wall with too many photos?Again, canvas art prints to the rescue. Most canvas wall art vendors will now take your photos, blow them up and print them to large canvas boards. Now you can share those special moments and display your loved ones like never before. And best of all, you can choose only the very best photos and still have enough to adequately decorate your walls. In addition to your own family photos, you can also order large canvas pictures of famous movie scenes or celebrities. Banksy PrintsBanksy art has become increasingly popular thanks to its pseudo-anonymous British-born originator who made a name for himself painting graffiti that appears to come to life, so to speak. A lot of artists have copied Banksy’s work and techniques, and now you too can have some of that unique Banksy artwork on your walls thanks to canvas wall art. Acrylic ArtThe best alternative to canvas wall art is to frame your art in an acrylic wall mount. Many of the same vendors that will create stunning canvas wall art will also take your photos or artwork, print it to high-grade vinyl and seal it in a strong clear acrylic sheet. Benefits of acrylic art over canvas prints include the ability to easily clean the acrylic mount by simply wiping it down. Same big addition of color and warmth, much easier clean-up. A no-brainer for anyone with kids or for public venues like bars and restaurants.

Favorite Photographs Become Wall Art

November 28th, 2009

Our master bedroom needed a huge makeover. The paint was old, the curtains were dusty and the artwork was outdated. I didn’t want to spend a fortune re-doing everything so I looked for inexpensive solutions to give the room a whole new look without breaking the bank.

Paint was a must. In some of our other rooms, we used a paint color made by Pittsburgh Paint called “Happy Trails, which is a really rich tan color.

Next, I knew those old curtains had to be changed out, so I found an inexpensive curtain rod and bought two different scarves and draped those over the rod. Done.

Since the room is primarily tan, it needed some color so I made a couple of arrangements out of silk and dried flowers. A nice pop against the warm tan of the walls.

Now, what to do about the wall art? I wanted to have family photos in the room but I didn’t want a bunch of mismatched frames sitting around. I was going for a cleaner look.

We recently became empty nesters so I wanted to showcase the transition my family has undergone over the past 22 years. It came to me to make wall art out of black and white photos and matching frames.

How I made it

Pick the photos
. I chose one of my family when the two kids were very young and one of my family now. Then I found my favorite picture of just the kids when they were little and another one of them now.

Fix the photos. After selecting the four photos, some had to be scanned into my computer while the more recent ones were taken with my digital camera and were already in my computer. I have Adobe Photoshop which I used to fix the photos. They were all different sizes and colors so the first thing I had to do was make them all uniform.

Using the “Image-Size” function in Photoshop, I made them all 5 x 7’s and using the “Image-Mode-Grayscale” function, I turned them into black and whites. I ended up with four, 5 x 7, black and white photos. This is an important step, in my opinion, because you want them all to match.

Buy the frames. In order to accomplish the uniform look, I also selected four identical frames.

Hang them. Once the four black and white photos were in the frames, I had to decide how I wanted to hang them. The orientation of the photos (portrait or landscape) will help you decide the configuration (across in a straight line, down in a straight line, in a perfect square…).

Two of my photos were landscape and 2 were portrait so I decided to put them in a square with an irregular edge to create visual interest. We hung up the photo collage yesterday and my husband helped to ensure that the frames were all perfectly spaced.

I am quite proud of the end result. Not only do we have inexpensive wall art, but we have something to look at that is so very meaningful and will be cherished for years to come.




By: Sandee Lembke