How to Upgrade Your Commercial Art the Easy Way
I’ve heard it said that oil paintings impart “art”, while manufactured drawings simply provide “entertainment”; that fine art inspires thought and wonderment, whereas mass produced prints only tell you what to do, what to think or even where you are, in the simplest way possible. “Gather”, “You Are Enough”, “Farmhouse”, and the massive collection of bird prints below are all examples of the latter.
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Why Buying Commercial Art is Not Apocalyptic
Perhaps there is some truth to that opening statement. But is it really necessary to get all dramatic about it? Not everyone can afford a piece of fine art. And frankly, not everyone wants to spend the money to own one either. Does this mean that you should be forced to settle for art with less...shall we say, depth? Well...yes... and no... but mostly no.
First the “yes”. Commercial art can certainly fill the void when “your money is a little funny” and more important things take center stage over creating a chic pad that’s totally clutch. Manufactured art is cheap, plentiful, and still allows you to rock out a pretty decent space.
Here’s why buying commercial art doesn’t exactly mean you’ve settled for the worst. An overlooked bonus of inexpensive, mass-produced art is that it often comes wrapped with some of THE best frames around. If you’ve ever looked at the cost of framing original artwork (or actually paid to have it done) you’ll understand why I find this so exciting.
Recently flipped an oversized piece of commercial art that I already owned for less than $25. Trust me when I say this is the easiest DIY. Ever. Here’s how I did it in a nutshell.
Now that I’ve just scored a few cool points with you in one fell swoop, allow me please to explain how I did it.
While looking for affordable art for my recent room makeover, I stumbled across an awesome website featuring stellar original prints by lesser known artists. The name of the company is Great Big Canvas. Great Big Canvas offers a wide array of styles from contemporary, to graphic design, to fine art reproductions.
What sets this company apart from many others is that most prints are also available for order as wall peels (in other words, as a decal). I researched a few other popular art websites, but none of them allowed me to choose my own prints as repositionable decals.
To be sure, this is not just any kind of wall peel. It is a reprint of the artwork of your choice onto a thick, high-quality, repositionable decal with a beautiful “fine-art-like” matte finish.
My State-of-the-Art Transformation
- Made my art selection on the Great Big Canvas website. The print above is called “Hand Me My Bag”. Total cost: $22.50 for the print with coupon. At the end of this post I’ll share that coupon code with you.
- Coated the commercial art frame with a mixture of antique gold and silver Rub N Buff I had on hand.
- Then, I simply took my 29x41 inch commercial framed art and applied the 22x36” wall peeI directly on top of the glass.
- Last, I trimmed out the remaining negative space (the area not covered by the decal), with strips of metallic adhesive paper left over from a previous project.
Et voila! Within 30 minutes I had the look of fine art without it actually being so. I call that collective serendipity.
Sooo, do you think you’re ready to give this a try? You know you want to. So let’s make this an easy decision. Now through December 30th get 50% off your purchase when you use the code: DEC50AFF . Click the banner above to get started.
Please tell me in the comments below, what do you think about this hack?