What if I told you that you can have your very own masterpiece for about twenty bucks?! That’s less than a week’s worth of grande Starbucks beverages. Major sacrifice, I know, but it’s worth it because your large scale art will be one of a kind-like no other!
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Hi! Thanks for stopping by! Today’s DIY adventure is to add some big color to your walls with a large scale art piece of your very own! The possibilities are endless! We have been in our new home for more than a year and have yet to add much color to our neutral walls. The house was sold freshly painted with a nice neutral Ivory on all of the walls and we have not given it much character yet. By character, I mean color. We painted our daughter’s nursery-turned office with a nice lilac and ivory chevron pattern but we don’t spend much time in that room. It’s been time for a change. MR. NTA and I used to love earthy colors (the browns and beiges), but our interests are slowly shifting. Mr. NTA is beginning to like navy tones and I am fascinated with everything gold accented!
I shopped endlessly for a good piece to put above our bed with no luck at all. Nothing accented my DIY headboard the way I wanted it to, and what I did find was way out of my ideal budget. What better way to save money and put our ideas together than a little large scale art project?
We made this 3′ x 4′ abstract piece to go above my DIY headboard & in between our DIY hanging shelves for little to nothing! Find out how!
Let’s get started:
First you need to measure the area that you want to put your art. You don’t want it to be too big or too small for your wall. It may not have that “wow factor” if it’s the wrong size. The area that I would like to dress is 36″ long and 48″ wide. At first, I was torn between making two pieces to fit the space, but decided to make one large eye catching canvas.
Next, gather your supplies. To make your own large scale art, you’ll need:
Wood for framing, cut to size $5
Screws & Nails $0 (we already have some)
Stain or paint for the frame (optional)
Staple Gun
Paint (I like acrylics, they’re pretty cheap and come in all sorts of colors. Spray paint with primer may be nice too)
Board backing cut to size (also optional, but highly recommended) $7
Newspaper or plastic table cloth (for your working area) $0, since we already had it
Clean and empty eggshells to pour your paint in
If you don’t want your frame to be natural, paint or stain your pieces accordingly & let them dry. Our furniture in our room is natural wood so we opted to leave it in it’s original finish.
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Large Scale Art Painting Preparation:
First, I poked holes in the top of some eggs, emptied the yolk into a separate container (& made breakfast! Win win!) Rinse them gently with water until all of the yolk is out. Then I poured different colors into each empty eggshell. Now for the fun! The beauty is that there’s no right or wrong way to do art! It’s your own form of expression! We draped our canvas over a banister, anchoring it with some landscaping bricks. It was very windy the day we did this so it’s extremely important to secure your canvas and workspace. We took our eggshells outside and threw them at the canvas! When we ran out of eggshells, we decided to have some fun and get messy! We took some paint in our hands and just splattered it randomly in the blank spaces.
I left all of the framing work to Mr. NTA, which he did an amazing job. We bought wood and the backing (it’s just a standard board with one smooth side- sorry I don’t have images) from the hardware store and had it cut to size. Mr. NTA drilled pilot holes then screwed the frame together to keep it secure.
Securing Your Large Scale Art
Once the paint dried I placed the frame on top of the canvas (which is face up) to get a good mental picture of where I wanted to secure our piece. Then I flipped it over (now the frame is on the floor with the canvas laying face down on top of the frame), cut off the excess, and used a staple gun to secure the canvas on the back of the frame, stretching the fabric as I go along to make sure it is taut and not loose.
I actually had enough canvas and backing left over to make a second piece with the same dimensions. Mr. NTA thought it best to have added security, so he nailed a board backing, installed a hanging kit, and hung our one of a kind masterpiece above our headboard! Our total project cost was about $25 and we have enough material left over to make a second piece!
Another great idea would be to wrap the canvas around the frame like the professionals do if you don’t want the frame to show!
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Check out these other great home decor DIY projects to try next!