Make Stylish His and Her Artwork for Your Bedroom
While I was away, Jocie whipped up some pretty impressive artwork to hang over our bed, continuing our bedroom make-over. Ever since returning from the Urban Oasis tour in Chicago, she’s been itching to release some of her pent up creative energy. I think they look pretty darn good and was shocked when she told me she only spent about $6 total.
When envisioning the room, Jocie wanted a neutral palate, using grays and whites while adding fresh green accents through out the room. The letters on the wall art match the green in the DIY lampshade and our window panels.
Local thrift stores are a great resource for crafty projects, and Jocie shopped a nearby Goodwill to find a pair of old canvases. It would have been more ideal to find artwork that didn’t have much texture because the texture “showed” through. Jocie was hoping to remove the canvas from the frame, flip it, and use the other side; however, the paint was so thick and plastic-like she could not remove the staples. Perhaps, in the future, she will find another canvas to re-do the more textured canvas of the two. The canvases Jocie purchased are 16″ x 20″.
Jocie painted over the old artwork with some spare ceiling paint. She chose a flat paint to provide contrast between the wall paint (eggshell finish) and the paint accent swirls on the canvas (semi-gloss finish). Multiple coats were needed on these because of the dark colors and deep texture.
The letters came from Jo-Anne Fabrics and are stuck to the canvas with hot glue. The letters came in black and she used previously purchased craft paint, mixed to match the room. For the swirls, Jocie used leftover Ben Moore semi-gloss paint, the same color as the walls, but a different finish. If you didn’t notice, they were inspired by the hand-painted walls in the Urban Oasis bedroom.
As an added bonus, Jocie used Command Damage-Free Hanging strips which allowed her to hang the canvases without damaging the walls, especially since she said it took a few tries to get the positioning the way she wanted.
The canvases cost $2 a piece and the letters were $1 each (after sale and coupon). If you don’t have spare paint, that’ll up the price a little. Even so, this is an easy, inexpensive idea for artwork in the bedroom. Stay tuned for coming artwork using a larger canvas and letters, inspired from Pinterest!
November 17th, 2011 9:34 am
My wife was _just_ telling me that she wanted to do something like this but somehow incorporating a ‘W’ in the middle. I’ll be forwarding it on to her.
Did your wife pencil in the swirls first or just free hand it? It looks really good.
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Ethan Reply:
November 17th, 2011 at 9:39 am
Jocie’s really good drawing freehand, and that’s how she made the swirls. It’s something that I’ll never be able to pull off. Send along pictures if your wife does something similar. I’ll add em to the post!
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November 17th, 2011 9:47 am
Tell Jocie those look great! She did a fabulous job on the swirls. (By the way, I recently learned how to pronounce your wife’s name correctly. I heard you say it on the video in the Chicago apartment,)
Isn’t Pinterest a wonderful source of inspiration? So many ideas, so little time…
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Ethan Reply:
November 17th, 2011 at 9:50 am
I’ll make sure she sees, and a lot of people get her name wrong. It’s actually short for Jocelyn. She’ll be glad to know one more person can correctly say her name
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November 17th, 2011 1:01 pm
Very cute. I love original art work. It personalizes ones home more than anything done by a stranger.
I’ve been pronouncing your wife’s name with a short “o” knowing it was a nick name for Jocelyn. Had I not known her given name I’d have probably pronounced it with a long “o” because she writes it with just one “c”. Can you tell I used to teach reading? :^D
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November 18th, 2011 4:27 am
Wow, she did a wonderful job on those swirls! I thought at first that she might have used wallpaper. I’m impressed! Great job!
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Fred Reply:
December 1st, 2011 at 8:33 pm
Hey LP, Welcome to the site! Just noticed that this is the first I’d seen a comment from you. I hope you’ll be back to comment often!
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January 10th, 2012 10:33 pm
I can’t believe she free-handed that. I was sure the darker close-up was a stencil and I was wondering where she got it from! This is amazing! I love to personalize wedding shower gifts. Too bad I just went to one…someone else I know needs to hurry up and get married so I can try this out!!!
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