DIY Damn Easy Decorating: Walls

Spring has sprung kittens, and that means: scavenging time! Time to grab your pals, put your beer in a bag and head outside to collect some raw materials (wood, paper, plant clippings) for your spring apartment upgrade. Here are a few damn easy ideas for your scores:

Image courtesy of hdtv.com

Botanical Art: get some scissors and start snippin.’ Just cut some twigs and branches (from your own yard, with permission or else I don’t know about it, savvy?). Let them dry for a day or two, to make sure they don’t change shade or brown, then spray them with acrylic finish and hot glue gun ‘em to a base, like torn newspaper or painted wood or whatever else you score. If you’re feeling fancy, frame ‘em with a shadowbox!

Image courtesy mixedplateblog.com

Everyday Items: one of my favorite street scores was a white ceramic dinosaur & baby left on a trash can at Broderick and Eddy. Really, all it takes is a walk around the block and you can find abandoned books, toys, split skateboard decks and whatnot. Try hanging some of your finds straight on the wall – or ditch the glass and set the frame around the item on the wall. Frame records, in or out of the cover, advertisements from foreign magazines, board games, photographs. For some reason plates get suggested for this a lot, and they have the added bonus of being easily re-paintable so even if they’re fugly as hell, that’s easily fixed. Spell out your name, or make silhouettes.

Image courtesy of decorating.visitacasas.com

Cut-Outs: Print out a design (birds, snowflakes, dinosaurs, trucks, whatevs), then trace the outline onto sticky-backed design paper, or wall paper, or construction paper, or free newspaper, then adhere with Glue Dots or that blue tacky stuff or whatever ya got.

Image courtesy robomargo.com

And hey – if you come up with a better idea, then share dammit!