Wall Hangings

[Whisper9999]

My apartment is pathetically lacking in wall hangings.  I've got a fairly good sized two bedroom apt and not ONE wall hanging.  I just don't want to spend $50-500 a shot. I mean it's easy to spend $100 on a frame alone!  

I'm confident that you good people must know a better way. Anybody have any great ideas where to find them reasonably priced?  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think I'm going to find them at garage sales or thrift shops.  

Does someone have a miracle site:  www.cheapwallhangings.com? There must be someone out there who can help my place not look like a hospital any more?!?

 

[Nords]

You're wrong.  One word (again):  Goodwill.

You'll be surprised what shows up there, especially if you can cruise the merchandise a couple Saturdays or Mondays a month. End of summer and end of the year donations are particularly good. I also find a lot of large frames there to organize my collection of submarine/Dilbert cartoons. (Hey, I don't have to stick them to a bulletin board anymore.)

Other options include business auctions, estate sales (from the newspaper or community websites), eBay, or your local FreeCycle website.

Finally, if you're a do-it-yourselfer with a wood/metal miter saw, craft shops will sell you the corner hardware. You buy the metal from their stock, cut the frame sides to size, and put them together with the corner hardware. Glass can be bought from a window/glass store or cut to size.

We've hit it big at garage sales, but you have to know what you're looking for so that you're ready when opportunity knocks. It may or not be something that interests you. We're not ready to go on Antiques Roadshow, but we've bought ratty old oriental prints (for the nice frames) only to discover that they're fine 75-year-old Japanese woodblocks on ricepaper.

Or you could give it the old college try-- hang out at rock concerts and collect the posters. I wish I'd kept that 70s/80s stuff!

 

[wabmester]

IKEA. You can get a framed Picasso for about $10. They have some stuff online too.

 

[Whisper9999]

Great ideas. Some of them tie in with the Furniture thread as well...

 

[yelnad]

Do you have a decent digital camera? Or can you borrow one from a friend? Then you can upload pics to an online site (like webshots or ofoto) and order prints. A 5 megapixel camera should produce good quality 11x14 prints or larger. Or you can print out your own collection of 8x10s on your personal color printer and arrange them artfully on the wall. I decorate my office at work this way...with 8x10s of my travels.

 

[Whisper9999]

Do you have a decent digital camera? Or can you borrow one from a friend? Then you can upload pics to an online site (like webshots or ofoto) and order prints. A 5 megapixel camera should produce good quality 11x14 prints or larger. Or you can print out your own collection of 8x10s on your personal color printer and arrange them artfully on the wall. I decorate my office at work this way...with 8x10s of my travels.

You know - I actually was thinking of that the other day but then forgot about it. I actually don't have a great digital camera, just a decent one. But I think my parents just bought one. Hmmm...

Also, I thought how I had forgotten to frame some of my child's school photographs. Shame on me!

 

[Traveler]

Check out Ross or Marshall's if you have one nearby. They have framed and sometimes even matted prints at big discounts.
I recently bought a very nice print of a sailboat in a tropical setting (framed and matted) from a Target Greatland for $29 but don't know if you want to spend that much.

 

[Whisper9999]

Check out Ross or Marshall's if you have one nearby. They have framed and sometimes even matted prints  at big discounts.
I recently bought a very nice print of a sailboat in a tropical setting (framed and matted) from a Target Greatland for $29 but don't know if you want to spend that much.

That's a close call, but if it was nice. What's a Target Greatland out of curiousity? We have Target's but they don't have Greatland after them...

 

[BigMoneyJim]

Pssst...I can get you a great deal on Edvard Munch's "The Scream"...

 

[trumpeting_angel]

Certain odd things, like one of my favorites, Haitian paintings, are DIRT CHEAP on eBay. Well, the best of them aren't dirt cheap, but lots of them are. I love Haitian paintings because they are incredibly colorful and alive.

My local Salvation Army is not a good source for this sort of thing (they're better on clothes and toasters). But there are flea markets around where you can find real paintings in actual frames for very little.

Those collage frames (bought on sale at a craft store might be cheapest) are wonderful for pictures of the kids. I used to take the very cheapest frames and put my daughter's pre-school artwork in them, changing the artwork occasionally. Some of them looked quite impressive, once the frame was around them, much better than they do hanging from a magnet on the fridge!

Small rugs or mats can be hung with a dowel and make for a terrific wall hanging - adding texture and warmth as well as color and interest.

Good luck!

Anne

 

[KB]

The only Target Greatland I've been in was just a larger Target.

 

[Whisper9999]

Pssst...I can get you a great deal on Edvard Munch's "The Scream"...

Lol! Talk about Dumb and Dumber. Can you imagine trying to sell that? Anyone who buys it can't ever display or show it...Go figure!

 

[Whisper9999]

But there are flea markets around where you can find real paintings in actual frames for very little.

Great idea. I moved fairly recently and I just thought of the fact that I moved with a few miles of one of the best flea markets in town! I could almost walk there...

 

[trumpeting_angel]

I bought a 5-drawer file cabinet today for $15 (something I need) and a lawnmower for $15 (can use it as backup or sell it for $25; my roommate says "you can always get $25 for a lawnmower!). Tag sales. I love it! Flea markets, too.

Watch out for eBay, though; it can become addictive. See my auctions at trumpeting_angel@hotmail.com. You might not believe that 300+ happy meal toys will bring in some money, but they will. They were free at the tag sale today!

Anne

 

[Cb]

Because my portfolio is properly diversified, I have a fair allocation to old electric guitars and amplifiers. As such, I have no problem with a lack of wall art.

Just be sure when you place the guitar hooks that you can swap a small-boded guitar such as a Stratocaster with a larger, 335-sized guitar - then you'll be able to rotate them around the house a you see fit.

Hope the helps,

Gn

 

[Whisper9999]

Because my portfolio is properly diversified, I have a fair allocation to old electric guitars and amplifiers. As such, I have no problem with a lack of wall art.

Just be sure when you place the guitar hooks that you can swap a small-boded guitar such as a Stratocaster with a larger, 335-sized guitar - then you'll be able to rotate them around the house a you see fit.

Hope the helps,

Gn  

Oooh - sounds like an interesting "collection". Yeah, you've got wall hangings made. Now as for me:
I've got a Motif, but I'm not hanging that on the wall!