Arr, matey, we’ve hit the doldrums!

When I was a kid if I so much as MENTIONED the words “I’m bored!” I’d get slapped with a list of chores so fast my head would spin. I’ve been conditioned since childhood to mask feelings of boredom with verbose statements of activity. I’m not bored- I’m blinking, and breathing, and digesting, and thinking, and pumping blood…now I’m exhausted just thinking about how busy I am! I try to avoid the doldrums. But last week, they struck.

(In case you’re confused, doldrum = a feeling of listlessness, aka boredom, I just felt like having a pirate-themed title. Cause I’m awesome like that)

After “finishing” my house-wide makeover party I sat down to breathe, looked around the living room, and realized it was getting a little kitschy. A little mismatched. The sunflower poster combined with my peacock print, butterflies & random postcard art in a hodge-podge on the walls was getting to be, well, boring. You know how some smartie-pants give detailed instructions on the ideal way to put up a picture frame wall? Lay them out on a table first and measure and then mark the wall and find studs, blah blah blah. Yeah, being the amazing DIY-er that I am (insert sarcasm here), I didn’t do that! I put up frames willy-nilly all over the wall and *just now* realized that my method is a slightly lacking in coherence.

It was time for a change. Enter Andy Warhol! After seeing a print of his in a jaw-dropping house tour last Friday I decided I must make it mine. So I designed a 16×20 poster using his incredible Lifesafers image in Microsoft Paint and had it printed at Walgreens for around $10. Since I never do anything the easy way, I decided to simultaneously upgrade the sunflower poster and wall-o-frames.

If you’re ever looking to update your artwork I highly recommend searching Google images. Be sure to limit your selection to “large” images so that the pictures returned by your search have a pixel ratio high enough to be used even in a ginormous poster frame. In case you want to join in the fun, I’ve done the legwork for you:

Downloadable 16×20 Andy Warhol “Lifesavers” poster

Downloadable 24×36 Roy Lichtenstein “Kiss V” poster.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

For the numbered wall art I used various fonts in Microsoft Word printed out on regular printer paper and cut to size. Not only does the neutral black & white art really make the frames pop against my lemon-mint walls, but the matching prints make my wall-o-frames more of a coherent collection than a hodge-podge!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

It took Walgreens two tries to get the Warhol poster printed the right size. You’d think if you design an image in Microsoft Paint to the exact dimensions of 16×20, upload it and order a 16×20 poster, it would print 16×20! Instead I got a 15 x17, figure that one out. I didn’t even realize until I was back home and tried excitedly to put it in the frame…weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth ensued! I then had to wait until noon the next day so the “photo manager” could figure out why on earth it didn’t print correctly. Moral of the story- I don’t care how rude it seems, I will always bring a tape measure and MAKE SURE the posters are the right size before I leave the shop.

Aren’t they divine? In fact, the Lichtenstein print is so striking that I stared at it for the better part of the evening after I put it up. And the Warhol lifesavers print is so adorable that I feel like my mood improves by just looking at it! Changing up your artwork is an easy, fun update that gives the whole room a facelift. It just goes to show that it doesn’t have to take tons of time or $$ to update a room! Google images is free and user-friendly, no matter what kind of artwork you’re looking for. I highly recommend giving it a try:)

xo,