Art Round Up (with links!)

Hello, hello !

Welcome back, mostly to me, after the great Norwegian adventure ! I came back fully rested and full of ideas … Ah ! Just kidding I never wanted to leave and I’m already exhausted.

But, such is the way of the vacation and I’m afraid real life will always take back its place. So it took a while, but I finally managed to get my act together and today I’m sharing a lot of art inspiration and resources, yay !

First of all, here’s a little “blue wall appreciation”. The paint was done very last minute before I left so I finally got to enjoy its magical healing power of blue happiness full-time and it really works. You just can’t be sad next to this wall, it’s like black magic or something !

I started *somewhat* styling, so here are some vignettes for your enjoyment :

This is playing around with what I already have, I want to get some more colorful glasses and maybe look around for some interesting accessories, but it’s not a priority right now, since the house is already overflowing ! #maximalistproblems

So that was the easy part ! As happy as I am that the shelves are styled and good enough for company, the main story is still the gallery wall.
If you haven’t taken a look at my «Gallery Wall Inspiration» board on Pinterest, well. You should. It’s got cool stuff.
If your parents don’t want you to, well, stick with me kiddo and keep reading !
I wanted to plan out the gallery wall before buying the art but turns out it’s literally impossible ! These are the tasks for much better men and women than me.
I started playing around on a photoshop version of the wall – easy peasy – but ended up ripping most of the hair off my scalp so I decided to stop.
It was like a giant puzzle : too many options for prints, too many of the available sizes didn’t fit what I envisioned, or go together very well, and it’s an explosion of colour, so I couldn’t seem to find the right balance. (Sooo much pink…)
Instead I needed to let it go, and go with the floooow.
So I removed half the layers on photoshop and started over ! The only real way Photoshop helps me right now is figuring out which wall is better for which print. I have a bright blue wall, a white wall, and brick wall, and a buttload of colorful prints. So I can try and see which one will look better on blue, or white, or reddish-brown.

For that, it’s very very good.
For the rest, it’s completely evil and I spent a full day going crazy staring at Photoshop and now have a broken back to show for it !

The main problem was I love too many prints, and don’t have enough space and money to buy them all, and I couldn’t seem to focus enough to whittle it down. After being overwhelmed by it for a looong while, I finally decided to take a breath and try again.
So I’m tackling small spaces first, kinda like a puzzle you know the old saying : start with the corners or you will go insane and/or blind.

( By the way, if you like spoilers or can’t wait until Mondays to see all this stuff, follow my on Instagram to get the scoop !)

So wall, by wall, here we go ! On the right side of the window, I already printed out two cool pieces I bought on Etsy and it looks pretty good ! Also, yesssss I added some more discoballs !

These print are actually downloadable prints from Etsy, you can find them both at the CityGirlStationery shop. This is the most affordable option for cheap art ever. I payed 12$ for both prints, yessir, downloaded them right away after buying and brought them to a printer in Paris where I payed under 10$ for the printing. It’s a total steal ! I might have to spend a pretty penny on some of my art, but I balance it out with very cheap options like this so I can still afford to you know, eat !

So above Kate here, I want to put up two 19″x27″ horizontal frames, one of them I bought already but the other one eludes me so far. It will look something like this :

The one I bought is from Desenio which by the way has beautiful, more classical prints, for way cheap as well. It’s a great resource if you’re looking to add some color or depth to your interior through art without breaking bank. I particularly like their landscape and nature selections, and would suggest it to clients so check them out !

This is “Street Women“

I also purchased this gorgeous “Ink Cloud” from them but have no idea where to put it yet…

Moving on ! Above the desk, I framed my gorgeous Italian marble paper (see below for details). It gave me a full 70s-futuristic disco vibe so I decided to go with that.
Here’s how it looks right now (ignore the messy corkboard!):

In a totally serendipitous moment, I happened upon a fantastic vintage poster for Barbarella, and after trying it on every surface like an idiot… It obviously needs to be put up here, duh ! The desk will be shiny and bright green so I love the contrast it would create with all pink art.

Awesome !

So that’s kind of figured out so far. And then yesterday, I bought quite a few other pieces from, you guessed it, Society6, mostly for the blue wall, to help things along, albeit very, very slowly. God help me when it’s all delivered and I need to make a decision…

I bought a pretty big version of this great abstract print from Matthew Korbel-Bowers and it may become the central piece on the blue wall.

Melty lips is my faaaaave. From @slimesunday.

This great mystic print from MilesToGo.

I also bought a pretty big version of this one from Adam Priester, and might use it on the left side of the window (brick wall again), to balance out the two prints on the right. I couldn’t work out a good enough picture of the wall to photoshop it though, sorry, so we’ll have to use our imagination !

I also got some more downloadable prints for cheap while I was at it. The other major bonus with this kind of print is that you can choose to make it any size you want. In this case, I got three prints from the great HoneyMoonHotel shop, and I’m planning on peppering them into the gallery. I’ve got bigger and colorful pieces coming and these black and white font prints are going to help the eye rest in all the madness and create some interesting layers in the process !
So I can make them as small or big as I go, as the wall fills up, which might save my sanity.

The important thing with downloaded prints if to have bring them to a good printer. Thankfully I live close by to the best in Paris : Négatif+. These guys are awesome and each print cost me under 10$. Scooore.

And finally, I looked into intricate and interesting papers, once again to create some interest in the wall.
There are many many materials you can frame as art.

Scarves, like this great Hermès piece from one of my favorites on Instagram : James Kivior.

Dried flowers and leaves, like this display from LoveMaegan.

and Wallpaper, like in this great inspiration from SimplyFramed.

I started looking around on Etsy because I went a little kookoo crazy for marbled paper. Well of course I found my bliss… twice! Now full disclosure, I tried to do this myself once and it was … not good. The process totally works but the result was a very very very faded version of the initial color. I may need to do some more research on the paint needed because it’s actually really fun to do yourself.
This is the one you’ve seen up above, it’s a piece of vintage italian marble paper. If I found this in a wallpaper I would cover my walls so fast it’d make your head spin. Swoon.

From the CarteVenezia shop.

And the second one is a much more intricate marbling technique and I just fell in love with the color mix. It gives me butterflies…

From the RedCottage shop.

I also found these beautiful waves I think I might buy soon, because I cannot resist pretty things. Ever.

From the HimalDesign shop.

So here’s where I am today with all this art business ! I’ve got lots more to get through before my blue wall is full and perfect so it’s gonna take a while until I can take a proper picture … In the meantime I hope filling the adjacent walls will help guide me a little. It ain’t easy having a rainbow house let me tell ya !

I also had the fantastic adventure of a lifetime : going to Ikea with the free Ikea shuttle ! I’m fake smiling of course as it was a nightmare. I went to buy close to 90$ in frames for all these beauties, so if you have no money, that’s not a great start. What’s that ? How heavy is 90$ of frames ? Glad you asked. It was unbearably heavy for 2 ikea bags and no arm strength, no car. Oh, and I had a 30$ voucher I forgot to use. (Insert internal scream). And waited in the rain. It was terrible. I am not a smart person.

But, at least I got to frame stuff when I got home so all was not lost! I love that blue wall but it’s hard to see it empty so I’m glad it’s getting some friends !

Next week I’ll get into my plans for the entryway, the « stay creative » motto is going a little too well and I’m going be running out of walls very soon…

I hope this post inspired you to look for some cool art for yourself and your home ! Have a great week

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