Apr 8

Apr 8 Easy DIY artwork

Before I crack on with this guide to creating oh-so-simple, but oh-so-effective artwork for your home, I just want to share a couple of quick anecdotes that are relevant to how this little project came about in the first place.

All that matters about art is that you love it

The first concerns an old friend who’s an upmarket art dealer (West End gallery, artworks that sell for many hundreds of thousands. That kind of art dealer). On one of his visits to my first house, I apologised for the not-remotely-upmarket art that graced my walls. His reply was something that has stayed with me ever since. He said “it doesn’t matter what art you have on your walls as long as you love it.”

You can find things you love in unexpected places

The second features a woman who I met in the early days of my first editorship and who became my mentor and treasured friend. Not only is she immeasurably wise and blisteringly honest, she is also one of the most stylish people I know. (And one of my inspirational Heydayers - how could she not be?)

Chatting to her one day in her chic living room, it’s walls lined with classy, eclectic art, I commented on how much I liked a picture of what looked like a gentle, swirling landscape. “Oh,” she replied “that was the packaging around something. I loved the imprint it made on the cardboard, so I cut it out and framed it.”

Bear those in mind….

Hold those thoughts whilst I tell you about how my daily newspaper landed on my doorstep a few weeks ago, accompanied by the whopping, and exquisite, catalogue for luxury clothing and home/gift brand Loewe. As far off being the Loewe customer as I am, I couldn’t resist leafing through the thick, matt paper pages, and relishing the beautiful clothes and products, sensational photography and endlessly innovative styling.

I’m not sure I had anything specific in mind when I tore out a few of the pages that particularly caught my eye, but once I had, I realised that, whilst I certainly couldn’t afford to buy the things featured on the pages, I absolutely loved looking at them. So with Anthony and Felicity’s voices echoing in my ears, I set about turning them into wall art. (See? I got to the subject of this blog eventually!)

These are the pics I decided I wanted on my wall (see what I mean about them being stunning?)

First job was to find frames and mounts for them. Normally I’d take them to a shop and see how they looked with any frames before buying them, but obviously that had to be done online, so it did feel like a bit more of a punt.

Hoping to avoid having to have them custom made, I searched for a design I liked that had the variety of sizes I needed (three large square, two slightly smaller square, one rectangular) and came across this range by Frame Lobby on Etsy which had them all. Bingo!

A bit more rummaging on Etsy led me to Essex Gallery Supplies which cuts mounts to size, so - with much careful measuring and re-measuring - I was able to create the specific mount opening I wanted for each pic.

When everything arrived I was relieved to find that the frames were just the job. The mounts, however, weren’t quite right. It wasn’t the measurements that were the problem - all that careful calculation had paid off. It was that when I laid them over the pics they felt just too white.

Because I wanted the mounts to complement the distressed style of the frames I didn’t want to paint them a solid colour, so I wondered what would happen if I tried staining them with tea to get a less uniform, slightly mottled, effect. And I’m happy to report that that worked a treat.

Frames and mounts prepped and ready, it was time to trim the torn out pages to size, tape each one to the mount to stop it sliding in the frame, and put them into the frames to create my who’d-have-guessed-these-were-from-a-catalogue wall art collection.

Which I have to say, I’m pretty delighted with. (I filled the gaps in the frame on the bottom row in the centre with a little bit of polyfiller which I then touched up with a dab of tea)

I had also cut out a couple of fashion shots from the catalogue and for those I had very reasonably priced bespoke frames made by Photoframesandmore, also on wonderful Etsy.

Those two are already hanging behind my desk at Heydays HQ. I think I’m going to use the set as the prompt to do a little refresh in my bedroom. Haven’t decided quite what that will consist of but keep an eye on These Are The Heydays Facebook and Instagram pages for an update.

Wherever they end up, I know I’ll not only love looking at them, but also enjoy knowing where I found them and what I did to create them.