DIY art for Mr. & Mrs ~ AKA The Dylan Installment

The Dylan Installment :P And an abstract piece we both liked in the background

One of the things we both loved when we first saw our new house was the fact that it felt like an art gallery. Big white walls, high ceilings in several rooms, lots of natural light coming in through the giant glass block window next to the stairs, and just a general airy feeling that made us both excited to think about the possibilities. The thing is art is completely subjective, and one man's idea of something he'd like to hang the wall is likely to differ greatly from one woman's vision for the house in general. For example, when my hubby said he wanted to get a huge picture of Bob Dylan to put on the wall, I took a few deep breaths and started to think of a way to use his idea to make something that I would enjoy looking at every day. And then I had an epiphany. I love black and white photography, and I have an obsession with trios of things - not sure why, but this something we've noticed about me - trios and diagonals. But anyway... Then there's the matter of our budget. Since we're still working on paying off our appliances (which I am SO THANKFUL for, it actually doesn't bother me to pay the bill, I just make myself think of laundromats and how many Sunday afternoons of my life were spent there, and then I click 'Pay Now' with GLEE!!), and there are other things around the house we want or need to spend money on, we are trying to stick to a budget when it comes to art. And since our old apartment was only 500 square feet, we didn't bring a lot with us :) So I came up with a DIY budget art project that my wonderful hubby hung up last night. Here's what we did:

The poster I ordered online

First, I ordered a black and white Bob Dylan poster from here - it was about $3.00 plus shipping on Amazon. When the poster arrived (like a day later - the return mailing label showed they shipped it from less than a mile away - kinda funny), we rolled it out and decided on three small areas of the poster that we both liked and thought had interesting contrast and detail. Then we bought some simple, big frames and matting. We got these from Aaron Brothers (and kicked ourselves for missing their penny sale by two days - ugh!!), but Ikea is great for inexpensive frames too. Then I cut out and framed the three areas we'd selected and voila - beautiful, simple art for our empty wall, Bob Dylan like the hubby wanted, but a little more subtle. I took a few quick snaps of how our little weekend project turned out this morning:

The pics don't quite do it justice, and I need to upload a front on pic of all three together (there are still pencil lines on the wall from the very complicated process of hanging them - our house is crooked, we're ok with that, but it makes simple things like this tricky!), but it was such an easy, inexpensive way to create art for our walls that we both love :)