A blank canvas can be a scary thing.
Especially when that canvas is two stories tall, like the wall above my sofa in the living room. The question of how to fill it and make a style statement nagged at me. So, we lived with a blank, boring beige wall for more than a year.
But not anymore.
As I shared during the reveal of my living room, I’m finally declaring the room “done” now that I’ve hung the art and curtains.
Now, about that artwork…
Would you believe the entire grouping of antique botanical prints cost me less than $250, including framing?
Now, in the yard sale, DIY world of $5 dining room tables and 50-cent appliances, $250 might seem steep. But when it comes to artwork and framing, that’s really a bargain. Especially considering that this grouping covers a nearly 6 foot by 5 foot span of wall. A sizable original painting would have cost me thousands of dollars.
So, how did I do it?
I knew of Zazzle as a place to print cards and other personalized products, but I’d never considered the site for artwork.
Then I found the amazing Botany Boy Zazzle store, a resource with more than 700 digital cleaned antique botanical prints and illustrations that can be printed as posters, calendars. posters, t-shirts and mugs. An email to the store owner confirmed that my chosen illustrations could be rendered at the large size I needed without any image pixelation or distortion. And for just $17 each, thanks to an online coupon I found.
I clicked “Buy” and within a week, my posters were delivered to my door, ready to be framed.
I purchased the following prints from the Botany Boy Zazzle store:
- Arucuba Himalaica Poster
- Cashew Print
- Magnolia poster
- Aeschynantheses peelii poster
- Walnut poster
- Aristolochia duchartrei poster
I wasn’t certain what to expect when I opened the tube, but I was blown away by the quality. The posters came on a nice quality glossy stock — and I cheaped out and ordered Zazzle’s basic value poster paper. And the colors were amazing. I highly recommend Zazzle and Botany Boy!
I didn’t waste any time getting them into my large Ikea Ribba frames, which cost me just $19.99 each.
I went with the black frames because they were the only ones available when I bought mine. Now, I see they’re offering a spiffy high gloss gray (swoon), as well as medium brown, aluminum and white.
Now, here’s where I have to be an honest DIYer and ‘fess up to a stupid mistake I made.
My original plan was to use the mats that came with the Ikea frames. So, I should had printed my posters to fit the mat opening of 15.25 by 19.25 inches. But I ordered them the size of the frames by mistake. And I checked three times before placing my order. And I still messed up.
But this turned out to be a happy accident. I like the way the larger botanicals fill the space. So from now on, I’ll pretend that I meant to order the larger, slightly more expensive posters.
While Zazzle worked for me, it’s certainly not the only option for creating inexpensive artwork.
Another great option — even cheaper than mine — are decorative wrapping papers and calendars from companies like Cavallini & Co.
When my original plan for my living room artwork didn’t pan out, I considered framing a half dozen of their botanical, bird and butterfly papers. At just $3.95 a sheet, the price was definitely right.
But I couldn’t find an assortment that I loved for my space. (For smaller artwork needs, Cavallini calendars are a great deal!)
I also considered some other beautiful decorative wrapping papers.
Like this gorgeous fine Japanese paper, just $8 a sheet.
Or this gold marble Lokta paper at $6.50 a sheet from Paper Source.
Or this turquoise and gold Lokta paper that reminds me of wallpaper, an even better bargain at $4.95 per sheet.
For that matter, wallpaper swatches framed would make great inexpensive artwork in a room. Fabric is another option, either remnants or your own designs, printed via a company like Spoonflower, where I got a behind-the-scenes tour when I was helping plan the Southern Bloggers Conference.
And, if you’re looking to create inexpensive artwork, you can’t forget sites like The Graphics Fairy, Reusable Art, Botanicus and Vintage Printable. So many great inspirations there.
I used free printables from The Graphics Fairy to create a DIY bulletin board and cheap wall art in my girly home office and craft room.
The New York Public Library Digital Gallery is another source for vintage antique botanical prints available for download. There, you’ll find more than 800,000 free and open access images — everything from botanicals, landscapes, animals and wildlife, maps, vintage postcards, advertising images. The best part is that these images are free for personal use (though you can buy professional quality prints from the N.Y. Public Library).
My original plan for my living room wall was to download my favorite images and have them printed poster size at the local FedEx Office (which I still call Kinko’s, BTW. Old habits die hard. I spent many, many hours in Kinko’s in college and even had a friend we called Kinko Boy. But you don’t want to follow that tangent with me, do you?)
However, I ran into a few problems with that plan — namely price and resolution.
You see, some of the images I chose from NYPL were on the small size, and I was worried that they would look pixelated when printed out poster size. In my case, 19.75 inches by 27.5 inches.
I also didn’t like the price tag. Kinko’s — I mean FedEx Office — charges $7.99 a square foot for color poster printing. If my math is right, then each poster would have been about $31 to print. It would have cost me close to $200 to print all six posters.
What are some of your favorite sources and ideas for inexpensive artwork? Inspire me, please, because I still have lots of walls to fill.
Disclosure: After having such a good purchase experience with Zazzle, I signed up to be an affiliate for them. So, there are affiliate links in this post. But I was a happy customer first, and that’s why I’m recommending them to you. You can read my full disclosure policy here.
Allie
Hi, I love this post! While searching for botanical prints to blow up and frame, have you come across any antique birds? Any ideas where I could look? I am wanting two or three very large that are similar to these:
https://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=AwrB8pVVIyhViy0A_GqKnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTIzbHNucnVwBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDaW1nBG9pZAMwN2JiNDE5Y2I4MzIyM2MyYjZiMjQ1YTkwMTU3MzY5YQRncG9zAzEwBGl0A2Jpbmc-?.origin=&back=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dantique%2Bbird%2Bprints%2Bframed%26n%3D60%26ei%3DUTF-8%26fr%3Dipad%26fr2%3Dsb-top-images.search.yahoo.com%26tab%3Dorganic%26ri%3D10&w=736&h=501&imgurl=media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com%2F736x%2Ffd%2F21%2F18%2Ffd211866283e48875479541f563b95ff.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fpinterest.com%2Fpin%2F37225134390083147%2F&size=122.0KB&name=%3Cb%3Ebird%3C%2Fb%3E+%3Cb%3Eprints%3C%2Fb%3E&p=antique+bird+prints+framed&oid=07bb419cb83223c2b6b245a90157369a&fr2=sb-top-images.search.yahoo.com&fr=ipad&tt=%3Cb%3Ebird%3C%2Fb%3E+%3Cb%3Eprints%3C%2Fb%3E&b=0&ni=180&no=10&ts=&tab=organic&sigr=11b5ho8fr&sigb=14l4pm7si&sigi=12dlipfnj&sigt=10paprei3&sign=10paprei3&.crumb=X2VMpdArfjE&fr=ipad&fr2=sb-top-images.search.yahoo.com
Albion
This is the best thing I’ve ever seen. LOVE!!
Cori
These are beautiful Amy! I think people have a hard time decorating big walls — the six pieces you have read like one giant piece. Absolute perfection!
Gretchen @ Three Little Monkeys Studio
Absolutely beautiful! Thank you for the ideas. I would love to do something similar. It’s gorgeous!!!
jillene@inkhappi
Wow. Thanks for all of the info. I love the results! I definitely may be going to this as I decorate my new place. Those prints are gorgeous!
Kaysi Gardner
I just love how this looks!!! I love that it’s inexpensive too, right up my alley 🙂
Tracey @Let's Go Junking
Love the vintage prints!
lisa at Mabey She made It
These are beautiful, Amy! And what a good idea.
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Jordy
Hey,
Love the idea, and I tried downloading the images from the NYPL like you said, but I couldn’t see how to do it since it looks like quite an old fashioned website. It’s an incredible archive. Do you need membership to do this? I’d love to print and frame some of those images on nice old paper and cover a wall with them.
Could you give me some info on how you got your hand on those images?
Thanks,
Jordy
Atta Girl Amy
Hi Jordy. Here’s a link to the botanicals available at the NYPL. http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=352042&imageid=1107545&total=1&e=r. You should be able to right click on any image and save a copy to your computer, but if you want high-resolution images, you’ll have to buy them from the NYPL. Here’s the link: http://www.nypl.org/help/get-what-you-need/photographic-services/obtaining-images. As you see, that can get pretty pricey, which is why I bought my prints from Zazzle: http://www.zazzle.com/botany_boy
Another option for free printables is The Graphics Fairy. http://www.thegraphicsfairy.com
Hope this helps.
Amy
Patsy Freeman
Please email me as to where or how I could obtain the Botanical prints on your living room wall over sofa that you had on your advertisement on my computer. Thank you
Atta Girl Amy
I bought my prints directly from this store on Zazzle.
http://www.zazzle.com/botany_boy
If you contact him, he can custom make you any size print you like.
Kim Hall
Amy, your living room is beautiful. I would like to order the identical botanical prints you used in my Dining Room. Could you give me the specific names? I went to Zazzle and tried to search sets or groupings w/o any results and there are so many (over 2000). Thank you in advance.
Atta Girl Amy
Hi Kim:
Sorry for my delay in getting back in touch with you. Hope it’s not too late!
I tracked down the names of the prints I ordered and the links:
Here they are. Let me know if you have any trouble with any of the links!
Aucuba Himilaica
http://www.zazzle.com/aucuba_himalaica_poster-228605100122375919?size=%5b20.7500%2c28.5000%5d&rf=238468618083141291
Cashew
http://www.zazzle.com/cashew_print-228965456246170578?size=%5b20.7500%2c28.5000%5d&rf=238468618083141291
Magnolia
http://www.zazzle.com/magnolia_campbellii_posters-228029658405452960?size=%5b20.7500%2c28.5000%5d&rf=238468618083141291
Aeschynanthes peelii posters
http://www.zazzle.com/aeschynanthes_peelii_posters-228003132475613458?size=%5b20.7500%2c28.5000%5d&rf=238468618083141291
Walnut
http://www.zazzle.com/walnut_juglans_regia_poster-228231267442711029?size=%5b20.7500%2c28.5000%5d&rf=238468618083141291
Aristolochia duchartrei print
http://www.zazzle.com/aristolochia_duchartrei_print-228164134844990992?size=%5b20.7500%2c28.5000%5d&rf=238468618083141291
Vel
Super cool! thank you for sharing this!! Must rememeber! New follower here.:-)
Shirley@Housepitality Designs
This is fantastic information…and your wall is pretty fantastic too!!!
Suzy @ Worthing Court
Thank you so much explaining this Amy. I’ve been helping a friend with her living room and this will be a great resource for her! For myself too!