Cheap and Chic: 5 Things We Love about Stretched Canvas Wall Art
Last week, Friday regaled us with her tale of creating wall art for her living room. Her pieces, made with Linoak on Second fabric stretched over wooden frames, ended up looking fabulous and were a) easy to make and b) seriously inexpensive. What more could you ask for?
Reading her story inspired us to look for some other uses – and sources – for stretched canvas wall art and we realized that there’s much to love about it. It was tough, but we narrowed it down to the top five reasons we love stretched canvases – and we included a few great sources in our list, too:
1. It’s versatile.
Stretched wall art is at home all over the house – we especially like it in open kitchens that flow into living areas. Wouldn’t this Eames rocking chair print from Inhabit be perfect in a casual modern house?
2. It’s easy to hang.
We admit it – we sometimes find it a little annoying to hang framed art, especially when the frames are ornate. It’s much easier to hang something that’s a basic shape, defined by clean, straight lines.
3. It’s modern and can be quite sophisticated.
Wall art comes in all sizes and colors and patterns, but we found that bright, childlike prints get the most press. They’re great – but it’s sort of a shame that some of the more grown-up designs don’t get more publicity. We love the idea of a modern, formal dining room outfitted in cream and deep brown, with walls adorned with this mossy print from Design Public:
4. Kids love them.
OK, now we’re backtracking. Yes, they can be sophisticated and perfectly at home in a fancy dining room. But then again…maybe it’s the simplicity of an unframed canvas, or maybe it’s that the visibility of the shapes makes it easy to imagine a little one saying, “Look, Mommy, it’s a square!” but we think stretched canvas art makes for absolutely fantastic nursery and playroom decor.
DwellStudio has a variety of prints available at Design Public, including these adorable cars and shapes:
We also love the idea of monogramming a child’s wall, or even spelling out a whole word, with these simple letter prints from Avalisa:
5. You don’t have to feel guilty not using them forever.
Don’t want to spend a million dollars on paintings that will hang in your child’s nursery for four or five years, max? Or in your kitchen, where it might get hit by an errand splat of ketchup? That’s completely understandable and that’s our last reason for loving stretched canvas art – most of it rings in under $100. Way under, sometimes: this adorable little squirrel print, by Amenity, is only $25 at Design Public!
Where else around the house would you use stretched canvases? In the bath? The garage? Maybe on a screened in porch? Please share your ideas – and your sources, if you’re willing to give them up – in the comments.
[Photo credits: Eames rocker from Inhabit. Green and white Amenity print and Amenity nursery print (on shelf) from Design Public. Dwell nursery from Houzz.com. Letter print from Avalisa.]
When she’s not mopping up juice spills, Kit throws way-too-big parties, cooks complicated dinner, and decorates (and redecorates) her house. Plus, she writes about all of it – both the fabulous and the disastrous – for Examiner.com, Baltimore Magazine, Houzz.com and on her personal blog, Mango & Ginger.
Mmm… How hard would it be to get large, stretched canvases, attach a couple together vertically, then hinge 3-4 sets for a room screen/divider? Hmm…
Your blog always makes my brain go crazy! I want to run out and do this now!
I bet not that hard! That would be a really cool (and REALLY inexpensive, compared to most room dividers) look.
I wonder, too, how hard it would be to attach a couple of canvases with rope, leaving slight gaps in between, so you could hang them from the ceiling to divide rooms. You could put together a couple of “strands” and it might look great…
OMG that would be great! Love that idea. Imagine some awesome loft apt in Brooklyn with linked hanging canvases…