Homestaging Wall Art: It's Day 31!

Friday, October 31, 2014
A month doesn’t seem like a long time. But it is when you commit to doing something every one of those days, whether you want to or not.

I never ran a marathon, I’ve never been called an overachieving type A, and I’m about as competitive as a jellyfish, so pushing myself to create a new blog post for 31 consecutive days didn’t come naturally.

In one way I enjoyed the test to come up with fresh content under pressure. I was almost glad that the self-imposed deadlines came at me fast and furious.
  
But I missed the satisfaction that I was posting the best tutorials, photos and writing that I could – if only I had more time.

I’m Hanging It Up

I learned quite a bit searching, dreaming, experimenting, and writing about wall art for homestaging in the past month.

I hope you’ve learned along with me. I hope you’ve picked up some tips about decorating your walls.

Whether you are staging your own home, staging other people’s homes, or just having fun with art, I like to think I helped.  

Everyone needs a creative outlet. Blogging is mine. Maybe you’ll find a new creative outlet or art form in the tutorials I’ve posted.

Summary of home staging art basics 

An effective home stager should know these facts when choosing wall art.
  • Art for staging should never be offensive or controversial
  • Big is best.
  • There are economical and easy ways to create your own art.
  • A variety of media are suitable for staging art -- paintings, textiles, collages, photos and combinations of these forms.
  • Framing and matting can make all the difference.
As your high school teacher might have said, “If you forget everything else I’ve said this semester, remember those points.”

Be sure to download my eBooks for home staging. You’ll find more ways to increase the value of your home.

Rugs, Wreaths, and Quilts

Thursday, October 30, 2014
I've posted plenty about paintings, but often a home stager's best friend isn't what you see framed on the walls of a traditional museum or gallery.

It's the quirky "finds" that get pressed into service as wall art.

Need examples?

How about an area rug like the one on the left?

Can you believe that all it took to fasten it to the wall were three dressmakers pins along the top edge, pins that are all but invisible? And they leave almost invisible pinholes in the wall.

The floppy fringe on the top of this rug doesn't bother me, but you could tuck it behind a rug as an alternative.

Look again at quilts

Another common textile used for wall decor is the quilt.

I've written in my home staging eBook that the wrong kind of quilts, and you know the grandma kind I mean -- as beautiful as they might be -- can age a home.

But today's artsy quilts are a different story. They can make your home stand out in buyers' minds. Confused about how to hang them? Don't be. Just don't hang them from rings or tabs, but from a rod that distributes the weight of all that fabric. This is the way to go with rugs, tapestries, weavings, and other textiles.

You can easily hand stitch (or glue if the piece is not precious) a casing, a simple strip of strong fabric, to the top back of your hanging, and insert a rod that fastens to the wall.

Another method is to attach a strip of hook and loop tape to the top edge, and the other strip to a wood strip firmly mounted on the wall.

Or Command strips from 3-M might be your choice for getting textiles on your walls. They come in all shapes and strengths, so I know you'll find one kind that's right for what you're hanging.

For more delicate textiles like scarves, lace and antique fabrics, you can attach these to a base fabric like linen or upholstery weight fabric to stabilize them. Mount this backer fabric on a stretched canvas, foam-core board, or even under framed glass.

Third dimension

For directions to DIY textural wreath
go to my tutorial for making a pine cone wreath. 

Wall hangings that have more body to them than flat art will add an interesting layer to your staged spaces.

The most common of these is The Wreath. Pinterest overflows with ideas for wreaths!

My favorites are the seasonal ones.

Just make sure that your Halloween wreath gets replaced before Christmas. There's no reason your potential home buyers need to know how long your unoccupied home has been on the market and an updated seasonal wreath tells people that you still love your home.

Check that your wreath is an asset to the room, something that adds texture and quality, and that it ties into the colors you've chosen for staging.

Most of the wreaths on my Pinterest Board for wreaths are more suitable for exterior decor, but not all. My square wreath of pine cones looks super indoors.

If you need ideas for current fabric wall hangings, use search terms like "Quilts as Wall Art" on Pinterest, and get ready for some treats.

Consider other options

Here are other possibilities for filling up blank walls with art other than traditional paintings, whether your home is for sale or forever.

Clothing, like saris and silk robes

Hand-dyed masterpieces of your own like tie-dyed work

Batiks and ikat patterns from fabric samples

Machine-stitched free-form embroidery

Flags (as long as they do not announce a preference for specific sports teams or impassioned nationalism for a foreign nation)

New upholstery or drapery fabric  
Have fun with all the possibilities to fill your walls with subtle pattern, color and texture. With the right wall decor, buyers are bound to be impressed with the specialness of your home. Yours be the one house on the tour they remember.

When to Go Frameless

Wednesday, October 29, 2014
The edge of the art canvas is usually framed.

At least, it used to be. But now, I'm seeing more and more unframed art. 

And I'm not talking about art students who don't have the cash to frame what they've painted.

I'm talking about giant canvases hung over drop-dead-gorgeous stone fireplaces in second homes featured in Traditional Home Magazine. So it's not about frugality or speed. 

It's about style. And I rather fancy it. It's a contemporary look that fits into almost any decor style.

The frameless look certainly makes DIY decorating a bit easier. Happily, it updates a home that looks stuck in an earlier era.

Imagine the room pictured above, and how old school it would look with an old-fashioned frame surrounding that painting of loopy circles.

But the edge of an unframed painting still has to look finished. It should be clean and free of paint drips and stains.

If you stretch a piece of decorative fabric that you've purchased around wooden stretchers, then the design will wrap around the stretchers. But generally, a painting ends at the edge of the front surface. A painting that wraps around the stretchers is often a painting that was printed in a factory and then stapled onto stretchers. Not exactly one-of-a-kind art.
    
Buying your canvas stretched and ready to go is the simple solution if you want to do your own artwork for staging, but can't prop up or hang a piece of unframed thin-style canvas board. Your canvas has to have that boxed edge that stretchers provide.

There is an answer to the question, when is it a good idea to skip the frame? The answer is, "Almost anytime!" Most house styles can support this kind of look. It's casual and creates an approachable atmosphere.

Are you working on a redesign of your rooms? Don't leave here without downloading my furniture arranging eBook!

It's Typography. But Is It Art?

Tuesday, October 28, 2014
In case you've been living under a rock for the past few years, I'll explain that signs and lettering are kind of a big deal in home decor right now.

You know a decorating craze has reached its zenith when you can buy it by the bagful at the dollar store.

I'm all for beautiful calligraphy. I appreciate the finer points of typography.

Many years ago, as a young magazine editor, part of my job was "spec-ing type." That means I had to mark up typed manuscripts so the printer would know what style and size type to set them.

It wasn't nearly as much fun as all we can do on our computers now.    

Today signage is everywhere in homes, proclaiming the love we have for our families, the strength of our faith, the quotes we find uplifting or amusing.

Witness the avalanche of "Keep Calm and ..." signs. Enough already! It's clear that signs and any art with typography or handwriting are appealing. When used for home staging art, it can add drama and some quirkiness, but there are limits to its practicality.

Let's look at the plus side of the ledger first. Here are some of the benefits of using signs for décor: 
  • They can set a mood with a message.
  • They can be inexpensive.
  • They are easy to hack (except for the fine art of real, hand penned calligraphy).
  • They can add a touch of lightheartedness.
  • Foreign languages look sophisticated when used as art.
  • Handwriting can look funky-fun-decorative.  

I loved this image the moment I saw it on
Centsational Girl's blog. 
It feels so personal,
nostalgic, and graphic in all its overblown glory
.
You can't go wrong with a vintage travel poster. 
This one is from Lakehouse Outfitters.

The pitfalls of using lettered art 

There is something compelling about the written word. People stop and read words. For this reason, I never encourage people to load up with anything that people want to stop and read.

If you feel compelled to announce your philosophy of life to the world, may I suggest that you write it in Spanish, French or Chinese or another language that speaks to you. "Carpe Diem" looks so much more sophisticated than "Seize the Day." And how about, "Dérouler le tapis rouge," for "Roll out the red carpet."

Keep it short.

Get your message across to your potential buyer by decorating in a style anyone could love, and leave the lettering for your next home when this one sells.

Top photo: Apartment Therapy

Six Ways to Create Big Art

Monday, October 27, 2014
Staging a home calls for big strokes, whether we’re talking furniture, window treatments, accessories, or art. Big Art makes a house look more modern, more luxurious, more comfortable, more valuable.

And, It doesn't take up any floor space.

But any kind of large-scale work of art is bound to have a price tag to match. DIY is the most practical solution, but not the whole answer. You still have to use your ingenuity.

1. Think threesomes

Combine three identically framed pieces each with a third of one large picture.

You can use this same format to hang three similar posters, such as three images of Paris or three black and white photos of trees.

2. Upcycle stuff

Look around. You probably already own over-scaled stuff. Use a  flat surface like a white board or cork board, as a base instead of reinventing the wheel. You might be able to convert a vinyl shutter or a window frame into a piece  of art, either covered with fabric or paper, or "as itself" pure and simple.

3. Re-frame your art

Sometimes the frame isn’t the problem, but filling it with art is. When this happens, you can put a large empty frame around a framed smaller piece. I love this technique when I have art that's great for home staging in every way but size. So, don't pack up all your favorite small paintings!

Because of its size, the pencil drawing above would be too insignificant for staging. But when I added an ornate frame, it gets the boost it needs.  

4. Buy insulation

Many decorators don't know that you can get huge sheets of foam core for budget prices at places like Lowes and Home Depot.

Just buy a piece of 1-inch thick rigid insulation at your home improvement store. They cost less than $20 and measure 4 by 8 feet. Cut it in half and you have two, lightweight, 4-foot by 4-foot surfaces that you can wrap with fabric.

I've done this and it works. I've also done this and it didn't work when I wrapped it with canvas and then painted the canvas. The board developed a slight warp. 

Advice: If you want to paint a canvas for your insulation board, do the painting and then wrap the insulation board with it. Wrap like a package, duct tape the fabric on the back, and hang with Command strips. No need for a frame.

All three parts of a triptych don't have to be equal
widths, as shown in this 
painting of red tulips by
Lourry Legarde available through FineArtAmerica
.

5. Use Imagination

Hang items that weren’t designed to be wall hangings – rugs, quilts, flags, signs. They can be framed under glass, pasted into jumbo combinations, or hung as a gallery wall. As long as there is an aesthetic similarity -- the color, the style, the subject -- your collection will read as one Big Art.

An old window is the perfect size and shape to fill an 
awkward area. Photo from blogger Down to Earth Style.

6. Get out your scissors

Cut up a print or poster, and reassemble the pieces on a large canvas, cubist style.

Or you can create your own crazy cubist picture using your camera and photo editing to make a collage.

Start with one subject and photograph it from different angles.

I think a big "painting" in the style of cubism would bring any ho-hum space to life. Your camera is your friend here. Photograph the same scene from different angles and then create a collage with photo editing and over-scaled printing at a copy shop. Or print multiples of your pictures and cut and paste them to a canvas. Bingo!

I hope you have some fun creating Big Art for your home, whether you are staging it for sale or just dressing up your digs.

You can pick up more fun tips in my décor eBooks aimed at professional home stagers and homeowners prepping their own homes for market. Just click the link to get started. You are just 2 clicks away from your download and the start of successful homestaging.  

How to Put Animal Art to Work for You

Sunday, October 26, 2014
It doesn’t take much time on Facebook to realize how much people love animals.

Have you had your daily dose of adorable kittens and talented terriers?
  
Most people respond favorably to images of the non-scary animals like domestic cats, dogs, rabbits, horses, chickens and some exotic animals.

You can tap into this warm and fuzzy feeling by including some animal art when you stage your home.

I have blogged about the why and how of using animal images for staging, and I gave examples in that post of what to avoid.

Animal art can get a little tricky. You want to avoid anything too schmaltzy-sentimental or anything that looks scary. If you're shopping for animal art that helps your staging, stay away from discount stores and the taxidermy shop and you'll be okay.

Here are some examples of animal art that could add good staging style to a house.

Horses are always classy. This black and white image is a winner.
I know it's old fashioned and elitist, but it's also just plain nice to look at --
dogs painted in the English style, to the hunt or at rest like these.
One sure way to add a jolt of color is to choose a colorful animal. Flamingos and tropical fish 
are favorites, especially if your home has a tropical or coastal vibe. HDWallpapers.
 
How to do a gallery wall the right way, with all the prints in
 matching frames, the same subject matter, and all having about the
same amount of visual weight. You're always safe with bird prints.
Don't these two sea horses look friendly? And don't they fill an
alcove with cozy charm? Roughan Interiors.
For much more advice on home staging, be sure to download your copy of my eBook, DIY Home Staging Tips to Sell Your Home Fast and for Top Dollar. I guarantee you'll be 100% satisfied, or I will give you your money back.



Five Mistakes Home Stagers Can't Make When Choosing Art

Saturday, October 25, 2014
Sex and religion: a double whammy!
Home staging has been bashed for stripping a home of personality for the sake of a generic look. To this I say, “What’s wrong with generics if that’s what sells your home?”

There’s no accounting for taste. Or, as my grandfather would say, (rather than say “What the heck was that guy thinking?”)De gustibus non est disputandum,” which translates from the Latin as, “In matters of taste, there is no logic.”

He loved Latin

You might want the art on your walls to be an expression of your taste, but it better not be too expressive.

One easy way to make your art more generic is to avoid the mistakes common to these subject areas: Sports, vulgarity, politics, religion, and (surprise!) people's faces.

Sports

Sports loyalties are a big deal all over the globe. Some team rivalries are intense, so the safest route to a purchase offer is to keep your sports preferences a secret. Why alienate someone interested in buying your home? There are so many posters and paintings that are suitable for staging, ones that are easy to DIY or easy to buy, that hanging a NASCAR poster doesn’t make good sense. 

One exception might be vintage sports photos or similar archival images (not you in your high school basketball uniform).  

Vulgar

Vulgar is a word we don't hear that often. Instead, we say, "sexually explicit," or even "politically incorrect."

Like obscenity, you know vulgar when you see it. Nudity is one of those controversial issues. Nude paintings have their place in art history, but to some people even Venus de Milo will be embarrassing. 

Always err on the side of caution whenever displaying artworks that include even vaguely sexually suggestive content. If you even think it might raise some eyebrows, then it probably will for some people. Remember that buyers often come from other cultures and other countries. We all have different sensibilities. 
So wrong on so many levels.

Political

Maybe you are the precinct chairman of the local GOP.

Maybe you worked on raising money for the local Democratic candidates.  

Let’s just say you have the posters or photos declaring your political passions. Even if you have a photo of you shaking hands with JFK, Ronald Reagan, or Martin Luther King, now’s the time to pack them into storage. Or cover them up with other, more benign, art for the time being.

When your home is on the market is not the time to win votes, convert the undecided, or announce your political persuasions. Sorry.

Religious

I’m going to tread lightly here because I know how important faith is to people. It’s your call if you want to share your belief system with the art in your home when it’s for sale. Buyers will make decisions about the kind of person you are – to your benefit or not.

My personal opinion is that the less the buyer knows about you, the seller, the better. It’s a factor of successful negotiating.
 
Buyers may not want to deal with someone they feel is either condemned forever, or else someone who would judge them negatively for their own personal religious beliefs. Spiritual beliefs run very deep, understandably so because along with our social mores, they form the core of our value system and therefore our actions.   

Faces

Have you ever driven in traffic and suddenly become aware that the driver in the next car over is looking at you? Yeah, even our peripheral vision is attuned to full front faces. It must be hard-wired in our brains.

Faces command attention, so for this reason, I always suggest that if you are staging your home, you should avoid using artwork that includes faces.

Your job as stager is to keep people noticing the assets of your home, uninterruptedly.

People touring a home want to “own” a room as soon as they enter it, not enter and be confronted with the presence of a stranger. It’s subtle, but that’s what home staging is all about – subtleties.
   
Does this “rule” apply to pretty watercolor paintings of children playing at the beach? Or etchings of Classical Greek statues? No.  I’m referencing pictures like the examples shown here.

You’ll know when a face takes over a room.

My message

Political opinions are a hot button topic
Do not fear the generic. It keeps you out of land mine territory.

If making your home a house rather than a home bothers you, remember that it’s only temporary. "Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis," means "Times change, and we change with them." [winking to Grandpa]

I hope your home staging efforts are making your home more beautiful and a pleasure to live in.

For more encouragement, tips on cleaning, decluttering, furniture arrangement, window treatments, curb appeal, and everything else that makes a home attractive to buyers, download my eBook, DIY Home Staging Tips to Sell Your Home Fast and for Top Dollar.  

Quick Art: Drip Paint and Strip Frame

Thursday, October 23, 2014
Does your home need a facelift? Is it showing its age?

Cleaning and decluttering can do only so much to update a home.

That’s why professional home stagers paint walls with the colors that are trending, and replace furniture with pieces that look more current.

Another way is to hang modern art on your walls. 

Sure, there will be people shopping for a property that’s listed in the National Registry of Historic Homes, but the majority of people looking at homes to buy want more new than old. 

So let’s get your home looking newer.  

Side note to people with historic homes: modern art looks great with antiques!

Modern art is characterized by abstraction rather than realism. The new art that reared its head in the late 1800s and continued into most of the last century, has looked fresh ever since. 

Of all the styles that were labeled modern – cubism, pointalism, impressionism, expressionism, and other isms  -- the drip paintings that American artist Jackson Pollack became famous for are the easiest to imitate. He called his paintings "energy and motion made visible - memories arrested in space."

You can imitate that energy and motion in your own home. And then frame it with a clean-lined, homemade frame. 

Make your painting

Start with a canvas ready for paint. It can't be a canvas board or foamcore covered with canvas. It has to have some depth so you can nail on the strip frame.

If unprimed, prime the surface with white or a light colored paint you're using elsewhere in your home. Yes, ordinary house paint. You can use either interior or exterior paint, but it should be a flat finish, not satin, semigloss or gloss. To dribble on colors, you can use either house paint or craft paints. Choose colors according to your palette for the room.     

Set up a work surface. The floor works best. Protect it with newspaper or a dropcloth. I find that using plastic as a dropcloth is never a good idea because paint sits on the surface of plastic, waiting for you to walk through it and then track it on your floor. Cloth dropcloths and paper absorb paint. 

It's best if you can walk all around the canvas on the floor.

Jackson Pollack's work at the Museum of Modern Art.
Yours doesn't have to be THIS big.

The process is simple. If using house paints, pour a few inches into a throwaway container, and use a paint stirrer to dip and drip. If using craft paints, you can squeeze them directly from their containers. Tip: shake the containers and then test the squirtability on a piece of scrap paper.

You have your choice of two approaches. You can use rapid motions to distribute the paint. Or you can slowly drip the paint onto the surface. I go fast.

Although Pollack didn't do it, I like to keep a border around the edges so the art is framed by some whitespace and the eye has a place to rest. It also looks more deliberate, and less like you framed your dropcloth.    

You don't have to get all-Jackson-Pollock.
You can keep it elementary and use a single color.

The strip frames I used on these two paintings are really just cheater frames. They can be made by someone who can't make mitered corners, or just doesn't want to bother. Some will turn up their nose at my corners and others might say, "Why didn't I think of that?"

Make your frame

If your canvas is rectangular, decide now if it will hang horizontally or vertically on the wall. Measure what will be the side edge, add 1.5 inches, and make a note of it. Measure the top or bottom edges, and note that. The side pieces of the strip frame will overlap the top and bottom pieces, like this:



Have your home improvement center cut 1 x 2 pine lumber into four lengths, two each of the measurements you took. If you have a large vehicle and a saw, you can buy the lumber in one length and cut it yourself at home.

Make the wood strips smooth on all sides by going over them with 100-grit sandpaper. Take the sharp edges off by sanding them as well. Test to make sure your measurements were accurate by laying your strips on the edges of your stretched canvas. We've made the side strips long enough so that they cover the sawed ends of the top and bottom pieces.

Paint or stain the strips, including the ends. A dark color usually works best.

After your drip painting is dry (and this could take a couple days if the drips are heavy), you're ready to nail on your strip frame. Use 1.5-inch finishing nails. They are long enough to penetrate the strip frame and enter the stretcher, but have a small head that won't be noticeable.

Lay the strips on a work surface and start the nails in the wood at intervals of 6 to 8 inches. Position the top and bottom strips first, and nail them to the canvas, making sure the ends align with the canvas corners.

If the wood strips are wider than the canvas stretchers, make them flush with the back edge of the stretcher, and bumped out in front, They will look more like a regular frame that way.

Nail on the side pieces, overlapping the butt ends of the top and bottom pieces.


The back of your painting will look like this. The cut ends of the
lumber are covered by the side strips of your wood.

Your painting should be ready to hang. You can use screw eyes and wire for hanging on a picture hook, or Command strips on two edges of the frame.

Get the look, get the book

If you like these ideas, download my eBooks on DIY homestaging, furniture arrangements, and no-sew window treatments. They're written for homeowners, home stagers, real estate investors, and anyone looking for easy ways to make a house more valuable.


Chalk Drawings, Kinkos, and The Law

Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Since I am big on big art, I'm all for taking average size images to the copy shop and getting them blown up to be really impressive.

Often, if you just biggie-size ordinary art, it becomes magically frame-worthy

Case in point: the chalk drawings I did on the sidewalk outside my home.

I wanted to create something primitive in its appeal, and then bump it up a notch with today's technology to make it unusual.

Skirting the Law

Did you know that if you take printed images like calendar photos, greeting cars, or magazine pages into Staples or any copy center, they won't copy it because it violates copyright laws?

Here's what else falls into the same category:
  • Musical lyrics
  • Architectural drawings
  • Cartoons
  • Newspaper clippings
  • Maps
  • Paper currency (if reproduced same size)
Of course you can make copies of copyrighted or trademarked material if you have permission. It's not as difficult as it sounds. My Staples store told me even Google will give you written permission to use their images.

And of course there are plenty of free and public domain sources of images and graphics, from the Library of Congress to The Graphics Fairy.

Sometimes the simplest approach is to create your own images. That's what I did with a piece of chalk and my camera.

I paid just $3.89 plus tax to have the photo I took and put on a zip drive printed poster size as an "engineering/architectural print." It's a well-kept secret that this blueprint copy is the economy way to go when you want a big, black and white reproduction. Poster-sized full-color images will set you back about $12 -- still a bargain, even though the paper is not heavy.

My advice: Look through your own photos. Or take some new photos you know will look good reproduced jumbo size. What can you create and legally enlarge for framing?

Discover other fresh ideas for staging your home from my home staging eBooks.

Make Your Own Abstract Paintings

Tuesday, October 21, 2014
The art that’s ideal for home staging is the kind of art that blends into the background.

It creates a relaxed, cheerful, confident, buy-me-now kind of mood.
  
Paintings composed of just soft waves of pale colors strike just the right note.

They’re not paintings of anything specific. They are placeholders, and more. 

I like to think they create the illusion of mist over a marsh on a day full of promise. Of daydreaming through squinted eyes at the sky as seen from a hammock.

The viewer can bring to the painting whatever he likes.
Of course, there’s a way to DIY these kinds of paintings.

The steps to making your dreamy painting

The easiest way to begin is to buy a canvas board already primed and ready for your paint. They come in standard sizes, so it’s possible you can find a frame second-hand that will fit. Tip: Buy the frame first, then the canvas.

But you can also buy a stretched canvas, the thick, boxy kind popular now that can go up on the wall without a frame and look perfectly fine. Even Wal-Mart sells them.

Next, you’ll need some paints. Wal-Mart is selling craft paints at two for $1. You can’t beat the price. Craft paints come in way more colors than you’ll ever need, at fair prices. They are easy to work, clean up easily, and dry fast.
    
You’ll need a pair of latex gloves. And a roll of transparent wrap.

I suggest using two to three colors, plus white,
to keep the painting's palette simple.
 
Squeeze a generous amount of paint onto the canvas,
putting each color in a few different places. 
 
Cover the canvas with sheets of transparent wrap. 
Use your gloved hands to move the paint

around, blending them in some places and
keeping them pure in other spots.
  
This is how the purple and grey painting looks finished,
framed, and hung. 
When I removed the Saran wrap,
I used wads of it to smooth out the paint,

cover all the canvas, and blend some areas by dabbing.
The painting shown at the top of this post started
with a canvas I primed grey. 
It was already
framed snugly with a strip frame, so I taped that off
 before painting.
I chose two shades of green,
plus yellow and white. 
I switched over to a
heavier pair of gloves, too, 
because the paint dabbing
at the end of the process gets messy.
 
Covered with Saran, the painting looked like this. I could see
that I wanted to make the 
blending more subtle,
so that's when the Saran came off and the dabbing began.

I think you will be surprised how some large abstract paintings will give your rooms a much more modern look. They are powerful in their ability to transform the feel of a room. Try it.

Once you frame and hang your dreamy abstracts, no one would ever guess that they are simple, homemade art projects rather than the work of some talented artist. Unless you choose to brag about it.

Decorating with Art - It Rubs Off On You

Sunday, October 19, 2014
Are you ready to play artist? All you need to create images that are both subtle and sensational is paper, crayon, and something with texture.

If you have ever been to the Vietnam Memorial in D.C., you may have seen someone taking a rubbing of a name etched into the granite.

History buffs and archaeologists often make rubbings to keep records of gravestone markings.

You can do the same to help stage your home.

Once you see how easy it is to make a rubbing, your imagination is bound to jump into high gear. It’s a fun activity for children because the process is simple and quick but produces impressive results.
  
To make a rubbing you’ll lay paper onto a textured surface and use crayon to transfer an image of the surface. Crayon picks up the raised or incised areas of the surface.

If you look around you, you’ll discover lots of interesting surface textures to capture in a rubbing. Nature provides you with some samples, like leaves, wood, coral fans, evergreens, and ferns. But things like baskets, serving platters, jewelry, metal plaques, rubber stamps, wood carvings, and architectural elements like manhole covers, tin ceiling tiles, and signs are also good candidates.

Flat surfaces work best. Hold or tape the paper so it doesn’t shift while you work. Long, steady crayon strokes are best. Practice first before you waste your best paper. 
  

How to make a rubbing

The best paper to use is one that’s soft enough to flex but not tear. I've used sheets of kitchen parchment paper (wet, wrung out, air dried and ironed flat) to make rubbings and have been pleased with the results. Regular copy paper will make a decent picture as well. 
 
If you want to create your own raised surface, you can draw a design with a glue gun or with school glue on a piece of cardboard or foam core. Once it dries, you’ll have a “rubbable” surface. 

I made the print of the starfish in the above photo. But the surface was lumpy and it was tricky to keep the paper from shifting.

Other rubs

I wanted something large that would lie flat and stay in one place, so I used an elephant ear leaf from my garden. Leaves are great rubbing subjects.

I knew the raised ribs of the leaf would pick up in the rubbing. I used a brand new green crayon with the paper wrapper removed.

I placed the leaf upside down because the veins were more pronounced on the underside of the leaf. Most leaves have more texture on the underneath side.


Stylized geometric images make good rubbings,
even if they are 
rather primitive like this one. 
If you have them or if you want to invest in
some art supplies, oil pastels are
an excellent medium for this technique.

Why not indulge your printmaking whims by trying some rubbings, one of the oldest and most widespread printmaking techniques? It's a simple and economical way to produce interesting art for your home staging. 

Do you feel that your furniture placement could improve, but you don’t know how? Most people feel the same way. For help, download my eBook, How to Arrange Furniture, A Guide to Arranging Furniture Using What You Have.

Crating Your Own Art: Drawing with Bleach

Saturday, October 18, 2014
My first mistake was to not check Pinterest to see what others have done using bleach as an art tool.

My second mistake was not to own a bleach pen.

So, I thought it was a good idea to mix a  50/50 solution of bleach and water, and then use an eye dropper to draw on good ole, cheap construction paper.

I liked the results, shown in the photo on the right. And I should have stopped there. But I wanted to do another "kitchen-themed" printmaking tutorial. My mind turned to cookie cutters.

"It'll be great!" I told myself, envisioning soft, thick-lined drawings of birds and stars and hearts on dark colored papers.

But the results were a disappointment. None of my cookie cutters, whether they were metal or plastic, upside down or right side up, on hard surfaces of soft, would produce a reliable outline. It wasn't foolproof either: one drop or splatter of the bleach solution and the page was ruined.

How to do

You can still produce a beautiful piece of art using bleach in an eye dropper. Or better yet, a bleach pen.

If you're not comfortable doing rapid freehand drawing, you 
 can do simple, carefully drawn images like these dandelions I drew. 

To draw on construction paper for staging, I suggest you use a free hand and don't plan on a detailed picture. Play Picasso. Do a bunch and frame the best.

Yes, you CAN stage your own home. It's easy with help from my homestaging eBooks. Download today and get started dressing up your home for sale. 

Cookie-cutter prints = no go. Even my dog (left) turned up her Beagle nose at them.



Inkblots as Art? Why Not?

Friday, October 17, 2014
One day just over 100 years ago a young Swiss psychologist was reading a book of poems written fifty years earlier.

Each poem was illustrated by an inkblot design.

The psychologist was only 26, and the inkblots intrigued him.

Over the next two years he experimented with hundreds of inkblots until he found ten that he used solely to diagnose schizophrenia in his patients.
The man was Hermann Rorschach.

He lived only 10 years more, never knowing that his test would be used worldwide as a mental health indicator.

They are used to interview patients who are reluctant to discuss what they are thinking or feeling.

Rorschach never intended the blots to be used as they are today --not as clinical tools, and certainly not as art.

Inkblots are fascinating. They’re loosey-goosey and yet symmetrical.

You can pay $50 on Etsy for an inkblot print. Or you can make your own, saving money and experiencing the satisfaction of creating something unique.

Let's make some inkblot prints to decorate your home for sale.

What you need

We're still in the kitchen this week making prints for wall decor. I chose to use food coloring because I think most people have some. I also chose construction paper because it is inexpensive, available everywhere, and will absorb the dye easily. Plastic boxes to frame your prints are an easy framing and hanging option. I like that they're lightweight enough that a pushpin will hold them up.

Who  knew Rorschach
was such a handsome dude?
  • Some sheets of construction paper
  • Food coloring dye
  • Paper towels
  • Newspaper or other paper to protect work surface
  • Acrylic box for framing
  • Paper sized to fill frame 

How to do

Decide what color paper and what color dye you'll use. I would avoid the neon colored construction paper for home staging art. You'll most likely make more prints than you will want to frame. Make a bundle and choose the best. You never know entirely how an inkblot print will come out.

Work near a sink. Prepare a work surface nearby by covering it with newspaper or kraft paper. Place a few layers of paper towel in the center. 

Start with one piece of construction paper. Wet both sides of it under running water for a few seconds. Place it on the paper towels and fold it in half, being as precise as possible.

Open the sheet of construction paper and a place dots of your selected color(s) in the center. Close it on the fold, and use a paper towel to press the surface to distribute the food coloring.

Open the paper. You may decide to add additional colors of dye and repeat the folding, or to lay it flat on newspaper to dry. After it's dry, iron it between layers of paper towel to remove the center crease.

Your inkblot art is ready for mounting on a piece of plain paper (color of your choice, but nothing beats white) and placed in the acrylic box for hanging.

Hermann would be amazed. But maybe not. The images captivated him as well.


Inkblot art has a  contemporary feel to it, 
but looks at home in any setting.

The classic Rorschach test is made with black ink 
on white paper. Photo via Centsational Girl.

Begin here: Don't be afraid to put dye on both sides
of the fold. There are no rules. 

If you want to keep the dye from staining your fingertips, 
now's a good time for latex gloves.
I decided this inkblot needed more color, 
so I dabbed on some more dye.
The color I added was blue, so this is how 
it looked after folding and pressing. 



Get the look, get the book 

For tips on making your home look better, whether you are putting it on the market or not, download my eBook, How to Arrange Furniture, A Guide to Arranging Furniture Using What You Have. I guarantee you'll be satisfied or I will give you your money back.

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