When your decorating ideas and dreams are on hold because you don’t have enough money to do what you’d like, there are still many ways to be creative and have beautiful walls too. In fact, there are several super cheap – and sometimes completely free ways to make your walls into interesting, artistic, and decorative show pieces.

1. If you have kids, get them to color, paint or draw for you. Most mom’s have plenty of the kid’s artwork displayed on the front of the fridge, but you can actually do even more with it than that. Try making it into a collage for instance, to hang on the living room or bedroom wall. A super cheap way to do this is to buy a large piece of white poster board. This runs maybe $2-$3 at any discount store. Then arrange the kid’s artwork on the board in a pleasing manner, and tape or glue each piece in place. Once it’s dried completely, hang it up using some stables or tape.

2. More kid’s artwork. If you have a little more money, you can buy the kids a treat while getting new decor for your walls too. Many discount and dollar stores have poster coloring packages for kids. These come in plain paper style as well as a thicker, cardboard style with black velvet. The packages include markers too, and usually have 2-4 different pictures in each pack. These usually cost less than $3-$5 each, depending on how large the posters are in each package.

Now, buy these for your kids in whatever style pleases you and them. Then let them color the pictures to their hearts content. Once they’re done, you can again post these up on your living room or bedroom walls using simple tape or stables. In fact, this is how I personally decorated my kid’s rooms for years.

3. Make a craft display. This one is particularly useful for anyone who either loves doing crafts such as quilting, sewing, knitting or crochet – or someone who has inherited many of these types of items over the years. Use your quilts, afghans, quilt blocks and so on as wall displays!

Now there are a few ways to go about doing this. I display my mother’s quilts for instance, using old bunk bed ladders. I have the ladders leaned against the wall in my living room, and the crocheted afghans that my mom made over the years are folded neatly and draped over the ladder rungs. The same can be done with quilted bedspreads.

These items can also be hung on the wall, but I prefer not to do this because I’m afraid of causing damage. One way to do it without damage though, is to simply mount a nice looking, long towel rack on the wall where you plan to display the quilt or afghan. Then just drape it over the towel bar and viola! Instant wall decor.

Last but not least, if you like to sew yourself, you can create colorful quilt blocks designed specifically to hang on your walls. Just put together fabric shapes in whatever colors and patterns you want, then tack them up on the wall. If you have a little more budget, you can actually buy a photo frame which has a mat included, and mount your colorful pattern blocks into that frame for hanging. This is an excellent way to create color-coordinated, artistic looking wall decor for pennies, and it takes practically no time at all too!

By: Kathy Burns-Millyard

What type of art do you prefer? When selecting wall decor for the rooms of your home, choosing specific pieces can seem like a daunting task. So many styles of decor have existed throughout the history. One of the most common and fascinating types, is abstract one. When we think of it, we tend to think of paintings and sculptures. However, a wide variety of mediums can feature abstract art. However, a wide variety of mediums can feature it.To have a better appreciation for abstract art, we should understand precisely what it is.

The range of meanings of abstract art can be quite broad. However, a precise definition would be: types of Western art of the 1900s, which: A) discard representation and B) have no starting points or finishing points within nature. It is important to note that it is completely a modern form. The reason is that the art itself is abstract. In other words, the abstraction is not based on a particular object or nature itself.

When did Abstract Art begin? Towards the end of the 1800s, artists began to reject the idea of art reproducing objects and nature. Rather, they started to focus on the notion of revealing one’s thoughts and unconsciousness. Today, this type is presented in various forms, such as wall art. This did not begin as a specific art form. Instead, it evolved parallel to other movements (i.e. Cubism, Expressionism, and Fauvism).

The Russian painter Vasily Kandinsky often receives credit for being the first artist to paint exclusively using Abstract Art. That was during roughly 1910. Then from roughly 1915-1920, it became more popular due to the Netherlands’ De Stijl group.

The idea quickly grew in popularity in the U.S., due to two European exhibitions in the early 1900s. The first one was in New York (1913), while the second one was in San Francisco (1917). During this period, several young American painters, such as Georgia O’Keeffe, began to experiment by using new artistic styles. Between World War I and World War II, Abstract Art continued to grow. In fact, by the 1930s it had become Western art’s most typical attribute.

After World War II, the art form Abstract Expressionism had been born in the United States. In fact, it was greatly impacting American and European sculptures and paintings.

In the 1950s, the Minimalism became the primary catalyst of Abstract Art. Some of today’s abstract wall art portrays this artistic style. This form was simpler and less personal than its previous variations. Within time, its focus developed into exploring the connection between forms and colors. By the dawn of the 21st century, art forms such as conceptual and figurative art had become as significant as Abstract Art.

When selecting wall decoration for our homes, we have a choice of several contemporary wall hangings. Consider using Abstract Art as a way to spruce up your home’s rooms. It can have a concretely amazing effect!

By: Alyssa Davis