Whether you want to update your room, or just have a big empty wall space you’ve never known how to fill, we’ve got some quick and dirty ideas to help you get all the look for pennies. (Or maybe even free!) So stop stressing about the cost of an investment art piece and let us tell you the hacks we’ve gathered to make your walls look like a million bucks on a shoestring budget.
1 – Collection of Black Frames with Chunky White Matting: $14
This look is probably familiar, because it’s the trick your most stylish college friends used to make their dorm rooms look so much more pulled together than everyone else’s. They key here is to pick up cheap frames and use your own photos, and remember the smaller sizes are always cheaper to print. Grab some small black frames with matting at the dollar store and a look like this look could be yours for under $15!
2 – Pastel Poster Palette: $29
Look, any teenager can tell you that posters have always been one of the best budget artwork options, but this trick gives them a grown up, sophisticated upgrade. The key here is to keep your color palette limited to a few specific pastel shades. Pair low-cost 11×14 frames from the dollar store with cheap poster prints from your favorite retailer and you could pull together this stunning look for under $30.
3 – Loose Sepia Tone Photo Collage: Free – $13
This vintage look can dress up any room and its impact is far greater than the sum of its parts. Pull together photo prints, or even torn out pages from a magazine in a sepia tones and stick them straight on the wall. Who needs frames? This laid-back but oh-so-chic look says you love the aesthetic but you’re not a slave to it. If you happen to have images that would work for this look, you could pull it off free, but even if you need to print a few of your fav photos in sepia tones, the smaller size of these prints means this look could be yours for less than $14! What’s not to love about that?
4 – Eclectic Recycled Wall Art Collection: Free
One of the 3-Rs of environmental conservation is to Reuse, and this look gives you a great opportunity to do just that. It seems we all end up with a small collection of old frames and wall objets d’art collecting dust in a storage bin, so rather than go out and buy new frames or wall art, just reuse what you’ve got! The key with this look is to group your small frames and mirrors with an eye toward variation in size and shape.
5 – Clothespins on a String: $25
The hipsters really got some low cost looks right, and clothespin art installations are definitely one of them. Can you really just tack two ends of a string to the wall and hang art on the string with clothespins? Yes, you can! The key to this look is a simple palette, although it works for both art prints and photos. Be sure to group your prints in a slightly over-lapped non-fussy matter. We love this look as a way to recycle formerly framed artwork, but it can be great for a series of reproduction prints, or even your own watercolors! Try investing in a floral repro series from Etsy, you can pick up some beautiful groups of 4 or 6 for around $20, and then you just have to source some twine and clothespins (it’s okay to ask your mom!) and you look is complete.
6 – Framed Stationery: Free – $35
Some of the loveliest artwork you’ll find is on folded cardstock and putting it on your wall rather than dropping it in the mailbox is a no-brainer. If you’re sitting on some old empty frames and a decade worth of birthday cards and thank-you notes, this may be a free option for you! If not, consider investing in a coupe sets of beautiful stationery and some dollar store frames to pull of this look.
7 – Framed Vintage Magazine Pages: $8
We’re sending you back to the dollar store for a few more black frames, but don’t you dare pay for what’s going inside! If your Grandma doesn’t have a stack of National Geographics for you to tear through, then just start holding onto those catalogs you normally toss straight in the recycling bin. We love the concept of picking a theme and clipping out pages that match. And don’t cut off the actual articles under the photos–these can work as a real conversation piece for guests!
