Are you pressed for time getting your home ready for its first showings? Worried that your rooms lack some sparkle now that you’ve removed clutter and personal pictures?

Enter graffiti, I mean…spray art.

If there were a contest to determine the easiest way to pretty up walls for staging, the winner would be the paint that comes in pressurized cans.

Spray paint gives you the fastest and least expensive tool for making your own artwork.

It might be the most fun way, too. Select the surface -- cloth, wood, paper, foam core, cork, glass – cover parts of it with bits and pieces of whatever is handy, and spray away. You can get all fancy with the process, or keep it uncomplicated.

A stroll down the aisle of any paint department will show you that the colors available in spray paint are better than ever. At craft supply stores you can get smaller cans for less than $3. If you do any DIY décor or crafts, you probably have some partial cans on hand already.

Here are some examples of various combinations I’ve had success with.    

Black Forest Scene 

One of the easiest styles of DIY artwork starts with foliage from nature. You can end up with a woodsy painting like the one in the above photo.

Cut a piece of foam core to fit inside a frame you have. Set the frame aside. Use masking tape to tape off a border on all four sides of the foam core. I made a 2-inch border all around, as you can see in the photo above. Spray a green base coat on the foam core. Use straight pins to anchor sprigs of evergreens or ferns. Spray brown or black to create the look of a forest. Remove greenery and masking tape border. Let dry, pop it into the frame -- with or without glass -- and hang!

Gold Corkboard Art 

Use masking tape to tape off the frame around a corkboard. Spray entire surface with gold paint. Use straight pins to anchor triangles (or any shape you like) cut from paint chips or card stock onto the cork.  Spray lightly with white paint. Carefully remove the paint chips and the tape from the frame. Done!
  
I added some pearls to the glitzy triangle painting, using straight pins to attach them to the corkboard. Corkboard gives you a handy base for spray-painting because it's already framed, and it can return to serving as a real corkboard (glamorized) after your home is sold.  

Drifts of Soft Colors

Tie 9- or 12-inch wide strips of tulle around primed canvas, and spray. Spray one or multiple colors in uneven "washes" across the canvas until you are pleased with the look. Untie the tulle, add a frame you're finished. You can substitute any netting or lightweight stretch fabric for the tulle. 

Step One. Your primed and tied canvas will 
look like this, ready for spray paint.

This is the same canvas after it has been
spray-painted with two colors, and framed. 

Angular Abstract 

Collect at least four different widths of tape and four different spray paint colors. Apply stripes to the canvas with the most narrow tape (probably washi tape). Add more stripes with transparent tape, and then with masking tape, and finally with the widest tape, probably duct tape. Spray one color and then carefully remove the duct tape. Spray another color, and then remove the masking tape. Spray a third color and remove the transparent tape. Finally, spray a fourth color and remove the washi tape. (Remove the tapes slowly so as not to pull up the underlying tape.)  

Step One. Four different sized tapes will make this spray painting more interesting. I glued a dropcloth onto a piece of foam core for my "canvas." After painting, I trimmed the ragged edges on the back before framing.  
Finished. After the tape comes off, your painting is complete. I discovered that metallic paint raised the nap of the canvas, which accounts for the somewhat fuzzy texture, not a bad effect. 
Tips to success: Give spray art a few days to outgas in a ventilated area before hanging in your home, since they tend to smell like chemicals for a while. Don’t worry if your spray paint should spit and spatter. It can be part of your design! No one but you will know.


Come back tomorrow for tips on how to make a collage for your home, Day #8 in the 31 Day Challenge.