Does anyone have any creative ideas for incorporating little pieces of art in each room?  I don't mean just stuff on the walls.  I like to alter switchplates to add a funky bit of art and pizazz.  What does everyone else do?  Just curious is all.

Groove on,

Holly  

I'll start by saying I'm no decorator!

I'll be checking in here from time to time to learn, get advice, and see beautiful rooms!

I don't think you had this in mind as a response, but I decorate the walls with colorful paint..... and........my children's artwork! I need to dedicate one wall per child or one room for them, but then what would I replace the rest of their art with????

Heather

I know the feeling. I also keep pieces of Hayden's art to give as gifts to family members. For many who no longer have little children, it is joyful for them to receive a gift of artwork from him.  You could also have things printed up as greeting cards or postcards too.  I have postcards up all over the house from all over the world.  Painted walls are great.   

Great ideas, Holly. You are so creative! I assume you take the artwork to a print shop and have them made into note cards?

So have you been swapping post cards?

Our last home before this one, I had a favorite nook:  It was one of those dining-room-type two-walls-meeting-at-an-interior-corner  (the previous folks had a TV there), and the walls did not go all the way to the ceiling, which was peaked and quite high.

Paint: Suisse Coffee, which was a clean buff color, not dark like it sounds -- a calm neutral.  The nook had double baseboards and two layers of moulding (might not be the correct term -- two layers of baseboard, but at the top!) that I painted in matching soft greens.  At the point you might have a chair rail, I took a stencil, just three rows of little squares, and stenciled it a little darker than my baseboard colors.  (More money, I'd have had that chair rail.)

Walls: I found an ornate plate display shelf, about 2' high and 4' wide, and filled it "to the brim" (!) with teacups and saucers I'd picked up (all second-hand happy little things, one pink with a ceramic rosebud rising from the rim of the saucer, and the cup was bell-shaped like a flower with the handle an extension of the greenery, quite impractical).  I really wanted a cottage-view window there, so on the remaining wall, I took a 3' wide x 4' high Michaels poster of an English garden with a little flagstone path leading outward, and fixed it to the wall.  Painted balsa-wood, or something equally light, squared "strips", and nailed them over the poster like a window with four "panes".  I tucked silk wisteria or some such thing behind the left bottom & side window strips, as though the window was open and the flowers were tall and falling in.  Then I pounded up a curtain rod at the top, one with about a three-inch clearance from the wall, and hung those curtains that have a lace-like picture woven into them.  (Mine were bunnies.)  That wall had a switchplate, and I found a three-dimensional bunnies-frolicking one -- kind of Beatrix Potter woodsy, not cartoonish.  My floor lamp was cheap, but looked Tiffany-like, with panels of pastels.

Furnishing: One plain wood table (IKEA cast-off), four KMart chairs, a clearance layaway steal, varnished wood seat with hunter-green high simply scrolled backs and legs.  Tablecloth, leaf-green and ivory plaid with a who-cares torn fringe (may have been from Pampered Chef -- that was the splurge).  On the table, on a hand crocheted second-hand store doilie (sp?) was a yard-sale planter that looked like a wine keg with spigot (I kept a showy live pothos there) and a couple of fake clusters of grapes stuffed around the keg legs.  Atop the high walls, I had baskets of the same size but varying in weave (about $2 each from a plant shop), with live pothos and ivies.  Among them, I had little birds that were crafted so they looked real, except for their little flowered hats... a couple of birdhouses, one of which looked like a yellow-roofed church... and a couple of old granite-wear looking jars, tipped over.  Somebody gave me a sign on a tall picket fence stake, shaped like a teapot, splotched with pastel flowers with raffia trailing from it, and black calligraphy that read, "Tea Shoppe Open".  I nailed that on the end of one wall (about a 6-8" thick wall), and it stuck out, highly readable, several inches on either side.

People rarely sat there unless we had a lot of people over, but everybody -- mostly me -- loved that little "room".  (Strikes me that this isn't exactly art, but it was the artiest place in my house!)
 
 

I'd say that's very artistic and sounds dreamy too.  How nice to have your own little corner. 

I like to create vignettes for the unexpected look.  I'll start with a piece of petrified wood, place a plain, white candle on a crystal dish then place a small, antique bird music box in front.  Or I'll place an antique picture holder sporting a funky tassel next to a small, colorful vase filled with white feathers then add an egg cup filled with seashells or crystals.  I pick up unusual rocks, crystals and dishes at rock shops or thrift stores.  Antiques aren't always expensive.  You just need to keep your eyes open.  I bought the small music box for around $12 and the ornate picture stand for $20.  Anyway, just try pairing unusual objects until something pleases you.  I have also used a giant Banksia seed pod that cost only $5. and that piece has received the most comments of all.

 Judy B-G

 I use all sorts of things as art.  My bedroom has antique clothes, both women's and babies' on the walls. It also has a collection of evening bags hanging on a peg shelf.  I don't know if you can see it, but on the shelf is a pair of hand crocheted gloves also.

I also have a boot that is beautiful with  beading and embroidery that I use as a planter.

Actually, Holly, I've done just that; altered my switchplates via collage/decoupage in almost every room.  Another thing I've done is to paint and then stencil a chair rail in my kitchen.  I have a small footstool in my bathroom that I painted and then did a vacation decoupage on as my bathroom has a seaside theme.

The Commode seat in my bathroom is a fun french design ~

and around my bedroom mirror is  a goddess painting

On my bedroom door is an Angel Collage with sparkle and shine ...jewels

and soon it will say HEAVENLY SLUMBER lol ~

I have always been a sucker for found objects, and second-hand cast-offs.

In my bathroom, I got brave & did an exposed brick 'faux' finishing on one wall. Used a dark toasted almond colour, then punches of red brick popping through various cracks.  I was only brave enough to do one wall. My landlord pretends he doesn't see it, it's funny.

My wall space has become at a premium, so I've resorted to hanging acrylic canvases on any solid door. Just a nail, and four little dabs of no more nails in the corner, and it's good and solid. I also like to group together alot of my small canvases to maximize the available door space.

I found that looking into feng shui really helped open my eyes to different perspectives of decorating a home. Normally, I'm not the ornate covering kinda gal, but I've converted my computer table into my 'wealth corner' and is decorated with red table covers and purple sarongs. Apparently purple & red are supposed to attract $$.

I've also overhauled second-hand pieces of furniture into great pieces of art themselves. Dressers, trunks, if it has four flat walls, I consider it game!

And I also really agree with the vignette idea mentioned earlier. I've started collecting old-fashioned suitcases (which also act as hidden storage- hooray!) which I've stacked using as a table space of sorts. Dried japanese lanterns & antique beer bottles holding a bouquet of found crow feathers are on top.

Wishing you the best of luck in your creative homestead endeavours

I love using items that are supposed to be used for one thing, for something else, like Zura's book planter.  That brings a certain edge of the unexpected into a room (and it also often means recycling, AND saving a lot of $, too!)   

Having spent my life moving around , I quickly learned how to incorporate my taste/ vision into every nook and cranny  --be it rental or  owned property.

 My husband didn't care enough to make waves  and use to deal with whatever I came up with.At one point in the 80's , we had a smoked glass wall over the living room entrance and I basically taped  my favorite  albums ( sans records , natch) up there ( Michael Jackson's Thriller ) , a couple of my E,W &  F ( their cover art was always great),and Carly Simon.  Everybody that came over always commented on how cool it looked.

When we were strapped for cash  in our first place, I put up one of my favorite scarves  from Austria  as an emergency  small window curtain in the bathroom .

Huh, I hadn't thought of that in years.

I co-owned a house with my parents for a few years , and  had a top floor all to myself with my daughter .We had some  fun decorating it .

I also did the  diningroom and kitchen downstairs.I did my first floral arrangements  there , and  selected  bigger pieces of art for those areas.

We moved into a new rental place here in November  , and I am still struggling to get stuff  into the places I want.I had to  come up with some creative ideas  for all my curtains because the rods here are  something I've never worked with , so  each window  is unique now.

I am somewhat held back because for the first time I am dealing with plaster walls.Banging nails in doesn't work, and there aren't enough up to use .

So we bought a drill  , but I haven't opened it yet....

I bought these really neat  wall clings from a kid's catalog that I am thinking of using down this long  hallway in between our family collage pictures.

I do love the excitement of  putting my stamp everywhere .

We are empty nesters now so I claimed one of the bedrooms as my art studio and have been decorating it slowly as I find "the right stuff." I did a very large collage and framed it, bought some posters, a funky orange metal fish and an orange butterfly. I bought gauzy curtains at IKEA, some candle holders and a stained glass flower vase. My daughter framed some of her photography for me and the rest is bits and pieces I have found in a variety of places or have been given. I bought two really comfy chairs at IKEA that were on a clearance price and covered them with kelly green throws. The chairs were white, my cat is black - need I say more. I painted my desk, shelves and storage glossy black and I go sit in my room even when I am not doing art. It is just a nice welcoming place to sit -  and the cat agrees.