One of the best way to save money while you’re decorating your humble abode is through upcycling, the practice of taking something old and worn down and making it totally new and fresh again. While Pinterest-ers far and wide have been doing this with pieces of old furniture for years, there’s a new trend emerging in the apartment decor world: the revamping of thrift-store wall art.
It’s a fantastic way for those of us on a budget to add some artistic flair to our walls without having to resort purely to posters, and the projects are simple enough for even the most basic DIYers. The majority of these creative ideas need just a few simple supplies: acrylic or spray paint, tape, scissors, glue, and a few paintings from the local thrift shop. Ready to make Macklemore proud?
Add Your Own Twist
Thrift store artwork gets a bad rap for being generic, but it leaves so much room for possibility when you approach it like a blank canvas waiting for your artistic additions. One man actually became Internet famous for painting his own characters into thrift store pieces.
Think Bob Ross-style paintings updated with sumo wrestlers on the shoreline– that’s the kind of untapped potential an old painting offers you.
Repaint It
If adding in new characters requires too much artistic skill, then you can simply repaint over the existing artwork to spruce up the colors and make the image modern again. It’s sort of like the paint-by-numbers pieces we used to make and present to our parents as children– except someone will actually hang them on the walls this time.
Cover it Up
Another cool way to update thrift store artwork is by making it one with your walls. If your walls are painted only half way up with color, try this trick: Paint the bottom half (or fourth) of your thrift store piece in the same color, and line it up with that same divide on your wall. It will look like you painted right over the painting while you were taking care of your walls.
If you can’t paint the walls in your apartment, don’t sweat it. You can simply dip your art in paint and it will look just as awesome.
Cut it Out
If there are people in your thrift-store paintings, try cutting one out and incorporating him or her into another piece of art. When do you do this with three or four paintings throughout your room, you’ll have artwork that looks multidimensional and all part of the same world.
Use it as the Background
Have you seen those paintings with great quotes made out of patterned letters? While filling each letter in with a cool design would be incredibly complex, there’s an easier way to do it: Simply create stencils of the letters from your favorite quote and stick them onto a thrift-store painting.
Then paint on top of the stencils with one solid color. When you remove the stencils, you’ll have one awesome and unique quote to hang up on the wall. You can do the same thing in reverse by painting the letters instead. Pretty sweet, huh?
Paint the Frame
Perhaps the easiest way to add your own DIY touch to a piece of thrift store art work is to paint the frame a bright, bold color. Easy as that!
Turn it into a Chalkboard
Vying for a chalkboard but don’t want to shell out a lot of money for a new one? All you need for this project is a little chalkboard paint and an old painting with a cool frame. You can paint over the original canvas, put it back on the frame and hang it right back up on the wall. To kick this idea up a notch, you can opt to paint only portions of the piece with chalkboard paint, too– such as a lake or a big tree.
Create Pop Art
You can use the stenciling technique I mentioned earlier to alter the background of a piece — like this DIYer did when she was transforming thrift-store paintings into pop art. In fact, you can do this with nearly every style of art out there (one of my favorite updates: comic book art).
Layer the Frames
Sometimes it’s not about what you do to the paintings themselves, but how you arrange them. Layering your frames over one another– with or without the original artwork– gives a room an eclectic and artsy look that makes a great focal point in the room. The best thing about this project? All you need is a little super glue.
There are many, many more creative ideas out there for updating thrift-store art, whether it’s a painting, a sculpture or even an old piece of jewelry. It’s a good idea to print out a few ideas that really get your imagination going and bring them with you next time you hit the store, since it can be hard to see the one man’s treasure in another’s man trash at first.
Remember: There are far more places than just thrift shops to find great artwork. In the wise words of Macklemore, “I’ma take your grandpa’s style, I’ma take your grandpa’s style. No, for real – ask your grandpa – can I have his hand-me-downs?”
