How to create art for your walls on a budget

Looking for vintage flair you can create yourself?  We have a true, design on a dime project that is super affordable and easy to accomplish.

Two weekends ago I needed a break... no big projects... no working on our side project... I decided I needed a reset.  Do you ever feel like you need that?  How do you reset?  I reset by crafting, I still have a new idea to share with you that is a bit crafty, but yet, still has that vintage flair I so love.

I love, love, love William Morris' textile design patterns, I am also quite fond of the ikat pattern, and brocade patterns too... do you see what all of these patterns have in common?  They look very similar, have a lot of movement, kind of like our backsplash.  For as far back as I can remember, I have been attracted to these patterns.  

I want to say the first time I saw this sort of pattern was visiting our neighbor as a child.  The home was built in the 1800's and was a Victorian mansion in it's day... over 3,000 square feet, all brick... winding staircase, wood paneling everywhere, a library, claw foot tubs, conservatory attached to the home... I can only imagine what it looked like when it was first built... beauty abound...  

The same family lived there, being passed down from generation to generation from when it was built till the early 1990's... the owner passed away and his children were no longer able to maintain the home.  That is the thing that is so upsetting when residents can no longer stay in their homes because the maintenance is so overwhelming...  we know what maintenance is like on our home, and ours is not even pre 1900...   

My mom was good friends with one of his daughter's, I was actually in her wedding as a flower girl, do you know I still remember that day! When her father passed, the children were upset to give up their family home. I can understand since it had been passed down from generation to generation for more than 100 years!  I can also understand needing to let go when they all had to sleep in sleeping bags on the library floor since the only room in the home they could afford to heat was the library.  Kind of puts things into perspective, doesn't it? 

I kind of got off the beaten path talking about patterns, but sometimes I just really enjoy sharing stories about why I like the things I do... that home had a lot of antique wallpaper on its walls when I was small and it is the only thing I can attribute to my fondness of these patterns.

As a child, I would stare at patterns and make up objects I could see in them... I had quite the imagination... making up stories in my mind... make believe if you will... my sister and I could come up with doozies as kids... but you know what?  It kept our minds active and we thoroughly enjoyed those days being children.

One of my projects from my reset included working with a rather simple wood plaque.  Remember the one I did for Mother's day with the black and gold rose?  Well, I decided to take the rose off since I was going with my reset frame of mind... sometimes I make things over several times until I feel like I get it right, and I feel like I did get it right with this project... 

I purchased a set of smaller stencils you have seen before and I have to say, I love the patterns.  They are not as large as the stencil I worked with a few weeks ago, but they were really easy to work with for this project.  

I placed it where I wanted the pattern on the plaque and then started by applying spackle to the plaque over the stencil.  If you read the suitcase makeover, you get the idea.  I kept the spackle very thin on both plaques I worked on.  I let it completely dry, and then matched the pattern up to complete the pattern on the other side of the round plaque.  I also decided to spray paint this one white over the spackle so the entire piece was white.

Once the spray paint dried, I decided to get a gold metallic paint out.  It seemed too runny so I got out my rub n buff and went to work using it on the raised pattern.  It is a lot of work for such a small project, but I find painting to be relaxing so I did not mind focusing on the small details.  

Once I had it completed, I decided we will be adding it to the wall of photos going up our staircase.  I cannot wait to finish this project.  We are still going through family photos deciding on which ones we want to hang and I am collecting frames for this wall.  I wish we had a really large wall to hang photos on so I would not feel like I needed one photo fight over another for wall space.  

I liked this project so well, I plan to make more and weave them throughout the picture wall going up the stairs. With the wood plaques being so affordable at $.97 a piece, I can afford to go crazy!  That is the thing about creating your own pieces for your home, they are not like every other home you see displayed... I do love having things that are unique to our home.  

Do you enjoy creating art for your walls?  Do you use crafting like myself to take your mind away from your work week?  I love creating and making things for our home.  It gives me an excuse to clear my mind and just let the creativity flow... we hope you enjoy your weekend!  I am collecting more frames for our wall and I am getting excited to share it with you once it is complete! 

Affiliate links included in this post.  I added some of the items you would need below to make this craft.  It is really an easy one to do that I think packs a lot of punch for the price!  You may already have a lot of these items around your home like I did too.