How to Make Budget-Friendly Wall Art

Wall art can be one of the hardest items to shop for in your home—it’s either too expensive, you can’t find anything you like, or you might not even know what you like. So, one of my favorite tips to share is to make your own, yo! Now, I am not an artist or very crafty at all, but this project is easy and cost-effective, so I thought it might be helpful for you too!

I’ve had the experience of styling two Airbnb’s in the last year and I’ve had so much fun sourcing décor for them! One of the big parts of styling for these projects is to keep the cost down, so I thrifted and repurposed as much as I could. I found a few pieces of great “actual” art for the walls, but I needed more to fill out the space and didn’t want to buy new.

That’s where this project comes in handy. I went to my favorite thrift, the G-Dub (Goodwill for those of you who don’t know my slang yet), and found 4 empty frames. I lucked out finding some with great design on them, plus 2 were even the coveted barn-wood style. I didn’t have to paint them at all and thank goodness because I’m the worst spray painter of all.

I was on a bit of a time crunch to finish the artwork, so I didn’t hunt for paper to fill the frames, I headed straight to Hobby Lobby and bought some scrapbook paper that I liked and that matched the theme of the Airbnb. You’re free to go to any old craft store you like, though…as I know the Lob isn’t everyone’s cup of tea…HA!

Once I got the paper home, I popped the backs out of the frames, cut it to size (you can trace the back of the frame so the paper will fit perfectly), laid the paper inside (making sure the top of the design aligned with where the hangers on the frames were), and then put the backs back on! Voila!

I spent less than $15 on this CUSTOM wall art and it turned out great! This is the perfect solution for those of us who like to change things out often; find some frames you really like and then just change out the paper inside! Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!

So, if you’ve tried to find some wall art for your home, but you just haven’t had any luck…try this project out! If you don’t like thrifting, you for sure don’t have to do that…it’s totally fine to buy new frames from the store. It takes a little away from the budget-friendliness, but you’ll still save on total cost + you’ll get something 100% custom!

If you’d like to see more pics of handy little projects like this, hop over to Instagram and give me a follow! I love sharing all my thrifty ideas!