Easy Chic Wall Decorations

I really love working on summer houses. People tend to be a bit more relaxed about what they are looking for, and operating on a tighter budget can force you to come up with really creative solutions—in this California house just south of Santa Barbara, it meant inventive new wall art.

First off, I developed a color palette of light purple, white, and salmon pink to make the rooms seem bright and cheerful. The furniture came mostly from web sites and catalogues, but when it came to filling the walls, we all decided that something less ordinary was in order. So over the fireplace I found this great fiberglass sea horse (above). It was made by a company that does store displays, GreatBigStuff.com, and it was a bargain. The shot of strong red was just the accent that the room needed. I bordered it with a collection of inexpensive mirrors. A great trick to make an inexpensive item look chic is to display in multiples—in this case, I used three on either side. The mirrors both fill the space and create more light, so this is handy for small or dark rooms.

But one of the best ideas came in the stairway. It was a big wall and needed something with a nice size to it. I found a poster that I really liked, but sadly it was too small. The solution? I simply took it to a local printer and had it tiled and reprinted larger as separate pieces on canvas. Each piece was then individually stretched and hung as a group. There are so many things that you could use this for—family photos, favorite posters, or even album covers. The process is fairly inexpensive and a great weekend project. So those are some of my ideas for fun, cost-effective ways to create wall art. Feel free to share ideas from some of your projects, as well!

Mark Cutler
Interior Designer,
MarkCutlerDesign.com