Copycat Art

Like most people in their 30's, I am at an in-between stage as far as wall art goes. During my college years, my walls were adorned with band posters and a few framed art prints from museums I had visited. Your typical Dali's, Van Gogh's, Monet's and the like. And of course I used to get creative with hanging sarongs and other repurposed items....it looked funky, yes, but it was very obviously a college girl's place. Since then I have slowly transitioned into purchasing a few original art pieces, mirrors, and other more "adult" wall pieces. However, I was missing a nice, large painting for the central wall of our house. It seemed like everything I saw in stores screamed Doctor's Office. I decided to take matters into my own hands.

While I was flipping through an issue of Elle Decor last year, I came across this advertisement for Plantation, which is a furniture store and website. I am not necessarily crazy about the furnishings in this ad, but I fell in love with the tree wallpaper. I decided that this would be a cheap and easy solution to my art problem.

I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a very large canvas and some black paint. I then penciled in the trees and birdies, using the ad as my guide. Painting was easy, and the design is such a simple one, it was easy to fix any mistakes by adding a new branch or whatever.



I am very pleased with the results, I love the simple and elegant look in my living room! This project was so cheap, even if I would have really messed up and needed a new canvas, or needed to paint over it all and start again, I would have only been out a few bucks!



I encourage everyone to try some copycat art for yourself! It doesn't take much artistic ability to do a simple design like this. And if you have a more complicated design you'd like to use but don't trust your own abilities, one thing you can do is get an overhead projector. I've seen these at thrift stores, but you may also be able to borrow one (from a school, maybe?) or rent one. Project your design onto the canvas (or wall if you are making a mural or painting on the wall directly) and pencil it in. From there you just have to fill in your sketch with paint!

UPDATE: I was just watching "Dear Genevieve" on HGTV, and I saw the exact same copycat art created! The episode was called "A Functional Design and Zoning Plan in a Great Room." She used more of a tall canvas rather than the wide one like I used, and then framed it. To be honest, I only caught the last few minutes of the show and saw the reveal, so I don't know if this is wallpaper and she used a piece of it, or if she painted it herself. The end result looked great, with a framed version of my painting above. If that's not validation for a good idea, I don't know what is! :)