$1 Contemporary Art Piece Mad in Crafts

I feel a little bad calling this project art since it didn’t really take any kind of skill or expertise to make, but $1 Contemporary Thing in a Frame You Can Hang on the Wall doesn’t roll off the tongue the same way.

I think that I have mentioned before that all the walls in our home are painted white-white (and FLAT white at that, grrr), and that we are not allowed to paint over it. Even the doors are painted white! I try to bring color into our rooms whenever I can, since the walls are such blank canvasses.

We have a big, blank white space in our bathroom that has bugged me since we moved in. Although I have a bunch of wall decor in the basement, none of it worked for that particular space. However, I felt bad going out and buying something new for the wall too. I needed to find something nearly free to fill that space, and with a little ingenuity, I did!

To make a $1 Comtemporary Art Piece, you will need:

dollar store frame (I used a 3-opening frame)

double-sided tape

paper cutter or scissors and a straight edge

lots of paint chips

This is our bathroom shower curtain. I wanted the colors in the art piece to mimic the colors in the curtain, so when I grabbed the paint chips from the store, I picked samples in blues and greys.

Do you feel as guilty taking paint chips as I do? I know they are free for the taking, but I always feel like I am shoplifting when I take any. It was especially bad this time because I needed a lot of them! I picked them out, glanced around a few times and then shoved them in my purse. Who, me, suspicious?

Using acryllic paints, I mixed up a color to paint the raw wood frame. I don’t know if you can tell in the picture, but it is more of a midnight blue than black. I only needed one coat since I didn’t want the frame to be glossy.

While the frame is drying, cut any printed words off of the paint chips. Then cut the chips into smaller squares and rectangles.

Since my shower curtain has a metallic sheen, I threw some sparkly silver cardstock into the mix.

Using the paper that comes behind the mat as a guide, lay down strips of double-sided tape and stick the pieces of paint chips down. There is no right or wrong way to lay out the colors and shapes. If your eye likes it, then it’s right.

Put the frame back together, and you are done! I actually put the mat in wrong side out, because the right side was off-white and the wrong side is gray and looked a lot better.

I haven’t gotten around to hanging the piece in our bathroom yet, but I was too anxious to show you guys to wait to post. Here is the finished project set up in the living room. Not too bad for a dollar, I’d say!

Linked to A Soft Place to Land, Making the World Cuter, My Frugal Family, The Girl Creative, Sumo’s Sweet Stuff, Today’s Creative Blog, Domestically Speaking, and Between Naps on the Porch.

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