Watercolor Abstract Art From Thrift Store Junk

Hi All!

It’s Tuesday again, and that means it’s time to check in on my New Year, New Room Refresh Challenge! This week it’s all about the walls with some fun DIY Wall Art!

For my DIY Wall Art idea I wanted to do something fast, easy, colorful, and inexpensive. Seriously inexpensive, because great art shouldn’t cost a fortune! So where do you go when you want to make inexpensive art? The thrift store of course! I picked up this little white frame for $0.50 and the bigger black frame for $1.99. Of course they both didn’t look this way when I found them, but that’s all part of the fun in my DIY Watercolor Abstract Art.

The larger picture frame makeover was pretty basic. It started out as an espresso frame. I simply popped it apart and painted the frame in a flat back then added some ribbon to the back as a cute hanger. I even put the same art back into it. While the print that’s in it is cute, I am waiting on some prints to arrive from our annual family photo to add to this frame. The great part is they will also be black and white so it will be the same feeling as current photo is.

As for the smaller frame, as you can see from above is started out as an ugly 1990’s floral print complete with its yellow and gold faux cracked glaze and mauve flower. Not exactly pretty, but the frame was in good shape and did I mention it was $0.50? My kind of price!

I started by taking the frame apart and removing the 25 staples they used to hold the picture in place. Seriously, yes it was 25. No wonder it was $0.50. Then I grabbed some scrap paper and some satin white spray paint and headed outside.

After what should have been 2 quick coats of white paint, but ended up as 4 because my sweet munchkin decided the frame with wet paint would make an excellent perch, I headed back inside and grabbed my watercolor supplies.

I started by cutting a piece of watercolor paper down to 8×8″ the same size as my frame. Now I am by no means a watercolor expert, but I do enjoy playing with the paints from time to time. So the best thing to keep in mind is this is it is an abstract project, i.e. there are no wrong answers.

With that in mind I started with a very light shade of blue I randomly brushed paint on to my paper.

From there I started mixing in darker shades of blues, greens, and black here and there. Whenever I felt like it was becoming too structured I dipped my brush in water and started flinging water at it to break it up. Again in no way are these technical terms or movements. It was simply fun, because it is abstract and there are no rules.

When I felt like my paper was sufficiently blotted with color I headed to my desk to make the Moroccan trellis overlay.

To make the overlay I used my Silhouette Studio software to trace a standard Moroccan pattern and cut it out on white card-stock with my Silhouette Machine. Then I simply weeded the design and waited for everything to dry.

Once my Watercolor Abstract Art was sufficiently dry I used a few small dots of super glue to secure the trellis along the top edge just to keep it from slipping and sliding when I placed it in the frame. Once it was in the frame I used the original mauve flower picture behind it to keep everything tight and secure inside the frame and added back 6 of the 25 staples.

To complete the look I paired my new DIY Watercolor Abstract Art with the back and white print, (soon to be family photo), a wall hook, some silk fiddle leaf fig leaves, (because I can’t keep plants alive), my antique wash basin and antique floor lamp for a completed look.

Thank you so much for stopping by to check out my DIY Watercolor Abstract Art! I hope you enjoyed reading about my thrifted little makeover! Remember great art doesn’t have to be expensive or hard to make! Just go out and make it!