Decorating your home can be an exciting venture. Not only do you want to adorn your home with artwork that reflects your personality but, if you’re anything like me, you also want to do it on a budget. That’s where creating your own artwork comes in handy! It wasn’t long ago that I started my adult life with nothing more than a job and an empty apartment. Since I was just starting out, buying the basics (think: furniture, dishes, bedding, and the like) took priority over buying expensive artwork to hang on my blank white walls. Womp. Womp. Eventually, after I took care of the essentials, I grew tired of staring at my massive stark walls…

But since money was tight and I didn’t want to just buy anything to grace my space, I decided to make my own art. My thought process was that it would be less expensive than buying art…and each piece could be a conversation-starter. Win-win.

DIY Artwork Hacks To A Great Looking Home

Artwork can come in many shapes and forms. It can be a painting, a piece of furniture, or even a picture you took with your phone. And, believe me, extreme talent is NOT a prerequisite for creating personalized artwork for your home. So before you go yelling at me for assuming anyone can just create artwork that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, hear me out first.

Imagine for a moment that you, too, can create cost-effective art for your home that will enhance your space! I’m telling you, it’s possible. All you have to do is tap into your creative juices and…try.

Charcoal Is Erasable!

Although I don’t dabble much in it anymore – I do love me some charcoal artwork. When I was younger I used to exclusively use pencils and charcoals to create various drawings. These days I mostly use paints, but sometimes I meander back to my artistic origins and find myself sketching something out in old-school black and white. The best part about pencil and charcoal? You can erase it. Poof. Gone. 🙂

A few years ago, I was bitten by the creative bug over a Christmas break. At the time I was working my full-time job, had my little girl, and was completing my master’s degree at the rate of 2 classes per semester. To say I was busy and stressed was a gross understatement. Finally, the semester ended and I found myself with time off work for the holidays. I was ecstatic and found myself creating another custom piece of art for our home.

So what did I create, you ask? Why a charcoal of Mad Money Cat of course! He was in his prime and I wanted to always remember him that way. I knew the piece was going to have special meaning to my family, so I wanted to do him justice by completing the project before he was old and decrepit, and I felt like I needed to. Mission accomplished. And, although he’s since passed on, that piece was done while he was a great and powerful cat. THAT is what I captured in that charcoal when I completed it. And that, at least in my opinion, is a great conversation-starter. It still hangs in our hallway.

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Paint It Yo’self

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. “Mrs. Mad Money Monster, I don’t have any natural talent.” To that I say, nonsense! Everyone has enough talent to create something for their home that is uniquely their own and is interesting enough to be a conversation-starter.

I will grant that not everyone is an artist in the traditional sense of the word; but I will also not accept excuses for not even trying. Every piece of art that hangs in our home has been created by yours truly. I’m not arrogant enough to think my artwork deserves to be in a gallery, but I am definitely confident enough to think that I did a great job for minimal cost.

The medium I tend to gravitate to most is oil on canvas. Oils are great because if you screw up (which I’ve been known to do) you can easily re-work them since they don’t dry for weeks and weeks! I was also genius enough to stick with mostly abstract paintings. This makes creating beautiful homemade artwork a piece of cake! You really need to try it!

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Non-Artwork Artwork!

When it comes to artwork, there are absolutely NO RULES. It’s a perfect arena where thinking outside the box is not only acceptable – it’s pretty much expected!

Case in point, about a year ago Mr. MMM and I were in desperate (exaggeration intended) need a piece of art for our main bath. To combat this need, we went on a Sunday outing to find said piece. We had no idea what we were looking for, but we definitely knew we didn’t want to spend much money on it.

The last stop of the day yielded a gem! We happened to wonder into an antique shop and found a few pieces of scrap wood! Excitedly, we were able to acquire said scrap wood for FREE! After taking it home, we put a nice protective finish on it and a few eyelets on the back for wire to hang it. Voila! A free and interesting DIY artwork hack for our bath was complete!

And there are many, many more where these came from. Our entire house is one DIY artwork hack after another. And we couldn’t be happier.

What do you think of creating artwork instead of buying it? Have you done it for your own home? If so, tell us all about it in the comments!