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.]
Five Totally Different, Totally Great Nursery Ideas
Just between us, though, we are tired of boring nurseries. Traditionally, nursery decor was pink or blue and ruffly and baby-ish. Not so today, though, with tons of companies creating products that are both cool and kid-friendly and with it becoming increasingly common to decorate kids’ rooms with adult products. Now, all those super creative and design-hungry parents have options. These are some of our favorites:
1. Dwell On It
Dwell Design has some great products for grownups, but they also do a fabulous job with kids’ stuff (like in the room above). We love the way their designers repeat simplified shapes – it’s like Warhol for the bottle-and-binky set. We especially like the way Dwell patterns skip traditional kids colors (no pastels here) in favor of more grown-up shades like teal and orange.
2. Tiny Hollywood Glamour
We love the way this space incorporates elements of Old Hollywood glamour, like the lines of the mirror, but streamlines them with simple lines and unfussy color. Plus – that crib. Just a little shiny, just a little curvy, all the way amazing. How glam is the baby sleeping there?
Worst pun ever, we know, and we’re sorry. But we do love this orange room so much. It’s bright and energetic and we can’t help but think that the baby who wakes up to all of these clean modern lines (and that fun chickie painting) is one lucky kid. The mom and dad who get to hang out in that fab stripey rocking chair are pretty fortunate, too. That is one piece that will definitely see use in other rooms once baby’s outgrown the nursery.
Where do you get baby’s room inspiration? Any great ideas to help inspire design-loving parents with their little ones’ spaces?
[Photo credits: all nurseries from Houzz.com.]
