Watercolor

I've always loved how pretty watercolor paintings are. They are simple, fresh and lovely. I loved water color even more when I saw them recently pop up on pillows. Water color pillows are truly pretty. Have you seem the ones from West Elm? And the ones below it, also so pretty.

{ via Say Yes to Hoboken }

{ via Parlour }

Then I came across pretty watercolor vases. These vases look pretty alone or group together. I'm so trying this look for our dining room table.

{ via here }

In the meantime I wanted to add a touch of watercolor artworkk to our living room. I just used some very basic water colors and painted abstract squares in saturated colors. I was really inspired by the West Elm pillows. If I get better, I'm so upgrading to better watercolor paints. But for now this little 5x7 painting works. I placed it in a simple silver frame.

I'm not sure where this will land permanently. A few days ago it was on our Secretary Desk. The desk is now in the process of being refinished, but here's glimpses how it looked in our living room.

I like the color it adds, so simple. I love creating simple diy artwok for my home.

Do you DIY your own art?  If yes, what did you create?



Oh Baby: Etsy Artwork in Nurseries

I have a confession to make, I spend way to many hours of my day looking at nursery artwork on Etsy! I'm not kidding, I'm always on there. I've been looking for modern nursery artwork for our baby's nursery for months and even though we have Ikea Ribba Frames ready to be filled with Art, I still haven't bought anything. Let me explain, I plan to DIY some artwork and buy artwork, but the selection on Esty is amazing & at really good prices. Nurseries 


Here are some artwork I'm digging for our babies nursery - feel free to chime in which ones your like! Personally I love ABC prints in nursery, kids room you name it. This one from Sugerfresh, is a cute modern take on the ABC's

{ via Sugarfresh }

I'm really fond of almost every print from LeoLittleLion. Talk about darling and so perfect, I love how whimsical their artwork is and Original :) This print is called 'Lion King'

{ via LeoLittleLion }

Name initials done in a super cute way, Weedoodle transforms letters into kid friendly artwork. I think this print works in so many areas of the home & not juts baby rooms. I could so see this print in a Gallery wall in a home, or maybe my older sons bedroom.

{ via Weedoodle } 

The Etsy store MissPrintDesigns has cute nursery prints for nurseries among other pretty paper products.  This one caught my eye. I how how its personalized to the baby.

{ via MissPrintDesign }

After I made Stuffed Fabric Giraffes for the nursery, I revived a comment telling me to checkout the Esty seller Giraffes and Stuff. I was instantly smitten, with this modern giraffe print. 

{ via GiraffesandStuff }

So this is one of my to do projects for the nursery...find the perfect modern artwork. Are there any Etsy baby artwork sellers I need to checkout?

Mapping Out the Wine Country

For our Anniversary in September we spent the weekend in California's wine country { Napa & Sonoma } we had a blast tasting wine and soaking up the local scene. While we were there, we saw a Wine Map of California. The wine map details all the wine regions in throughout California in a modern colorful way. Being wine lovers we decided to buy a Wine Map for our home. Mr CLH & I love having artwork in our home that's meaningfull to us. I bought the California Wine Map off of Amazon.com { love getting free shipping when you spend $25 bucks! :) }

Instead on spending lots of money for a custom frame, I bought a large poster size frame from Ikea that included a matte. The matte color was dark beige, so I spray painted the matte white. I used my coffee table was a workstation.

As you can see from the picture below, the poster frame I bought from Ikea is huge! Compared to our coffee table :)

I place the poster on top of the matte and used double sided tape to keep the poster in place. My sliver candle holders doubled as extra hands while working on this project.

I placed the map on the wall, where on our large mirror used to hang before being moved into our dining room. Here's how this spot looked a few months back.

Here's how the same spot looks now in our home. I'm loving the California Wine Map looks in our living room. It's such a pretty addition! I love looking at the map at looking at other wine regions we have yet to visit in California, and thinking about future trips.

What type of Artwork do you love to have in your home? How do you save money on framing costs? 

 Click here and here for orginal artwork ideas for your home.

Looking for Art in all the Right Places

I've been on the look out for some more artwork for our living room and to fill the empty wall space in our hallways and bedrooms. If you read between the lines, my house needs more artwork. Finding the right artwork for a space and be challenging plus artwork is deeply personal. I love looking online for artwork, because you can find some many great prints at really affordable prices. I've been on the hunt for some pretty, interesting and quirky artwork. Overall,  I adore abstract artwork. I started my art search on Art.com, and love this Mark Rothko artwork. I've pretty much wanted his artwork every since I saw it in Mad Men { yep, huge fan of the show } I really would like a large Rothko in our living room. I like the two below.

I also like the artwork below from Gustav Klimt, called From Garden with Sunflowers

The artwork below is by Hyunah Kim called Serenity

I also like a lot of artwork from Rabi Khan, he creates a lot of lovely abstracts, ones about love, flowers etc. The artwork below is Peacock 2

I discovered Imagekind.com thanks to Liz from It's Great to be Home. Imagekind, sells a variety of art from well know artists to independent artists. So far we've bought two abstract artwork from them for our living room. I love how they flow so well with the space. I took a little detour while looking at Artwork for the house, and came across great Star Wars artwork for my sons room { yeah, the same tween space I have yet to 'finish' } This a cool retro looking print, the artists name is JustinVG. He has a lot of fun prints from Star Wars, if any of you out their are Star Wars fans or know one, this print could be a fun addition to a room. A small 6.5 x 10 will start at $ 17 bucks. Not bad for original artwork.

I also thought this nod to mid century chairs is really cool & fun. Every mid century imaginable is represented in this print. The artist is James Provost, a 10 x 16 print starts at just $ 16 bucks

Another great source I love searching for artwork is Esty, I love find fun word print art on there. Plus nothings better then supporting independent artists. I adore these word prints! I pretty much love anything written by Jane Austen, my two favorite books from her are Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility. I want this print somewhere in my bedroom, either on my nightstand or on the wall. Regardless, I love this. The print is by Brookish, the 5x7 print is only a mere $ 6.50

I'm loving these blog related word art prints, so much fun. I love to blog, love it! It's so great to get a sneak into peoples lives and make new friendships all from blogging. Of course I love this print from Jen Ramos via Made By A Girl an amazing blogger!

I also like this artwork about Blogging & Texting two things I love doing, both of the prints are from the same artisit ECCE Prints. I like that the prints are modern and fun.

Is your home in need of artwork too? What type or artwork are you generally drawn to? Where do you shop for art?

Artful Updates { Part Two } Project Done

Last week I shared two pieces of art at Mr CLH & I found on the cheap at our local Salvation Army for only $ 2.50 each! We scored them at a 50% off everything sale. As I mentioned last week we planned on updating each piece of art work with new custom mattes and glossy paint on the already nice frames. I ordered custom mattes from Micheal's, which breathed new life into each print. It's amazing what the right paint and frame color can do to a print!

After we changed out the old mattes, I attached new backing to the frames using heavy construction paper and also attached new hanging hardware.

Here's a reminder of how the 'Bird Print' looked before updating the print.

Here's a close up reminder of how the faux matte cheapen the look of the print.

Here's our 'Bird Print' now. I'm always amazed by the power of paint! The frame is now painted a glossy white and the new matte, helps create more balance. Now instead of your eyes being drawn to the dark frame and then maybe the print, they go directly to the print. This print will hang either on our dining room or bathroom. Mr CLH is still not a huge fan of the print, but he loves the white frame and matte.

Next up, a reminder of how the 'Trees' print looked when we bought it home, I'm still amazed we paid only $ 2.50 for this 22x19 inch print! Remember this print was already custom framed, however it really need updating. The yellow mustard matte really took away the beauty and simpleness of the print.

Here's our print now. I painted the frame a glossy bright white and went with a dark grey matte to enhance the black and white print. I love how this artful update turned out, its a breath of fresh air.

We plan on hanging the 'Trees' print at the end of our hallway. Once both pictures are up, I'll share new pictures of them. I know everyone loves a good cost breakdown, here's how ours added up.

Project Break Down:

Bird Print $ 2.50 

Custom Matte $ 5.20

Construction Paper $ .97 (for back of artwork)

White Glossy Paint & Caulk - n/a had both on hand. I used the caulk to fill in the seams

Picture Hardware: n/a had on hand

Trees Print $ 2.50

Custom Matte: $ 6.00

White Glossy Paint & Caulk - n/a had both on hand

Construction Paper $ .97 (for back of artwork)

Picture Hardware: n/a had on hand

Total cost $ 18.14 not including tax

The biggest cost of our update were the custom mattes from Micheal's, which were a steal!! I brought each frame in with the picture inside and they did all the measuring for the frames. I picked out the matte colors and they mattes were cut within 24hrs. I loved the quick turn around the affordable price! Custom mattes are a great way to enhance artwork of pictures. I'll be starting my sons room soon, so he can have a new room for entering 5th grade and for just becoming a tween. I'm sure I'll be order more custom mattes to display his own artwork in his room.

So what do you think of our updates? Remember next time your in a thrift store look at the artwork you may uncover a pretty piece of art that just needs a little updating.

Artful Updates { Part One }

One of the best place to shop for interesting and sometimes original artwork are thrift stores. I'm sure we've all seen our share of craptastic 80's art and fuzzy art posters at thrift stores. However, when you take your time digging though the unwanted and no longer loved art work, you just might find a special piece for your home. Last week I was shopping at my local Salvation Army, hoping to find some thrifty finds. When I saw a bird print that caught my eye, meanwhile Mr. CLH spotted a black and white print that caught his eye. He didn't dig my print, but I loved the print he found! My print was $ 4.99 and the print he liked was $ 4.99 too.  It just so happened we popped into the Salvation Army on a 50% off day for the entire store! We paid only $ 4.99 for both pieces of art work. Bot have nice frames and glass!

When we brought the frames home, I did a quick assessment of the changes we should make to each piece of art work.  First up the bird print. I like the style frame it was in, but knew it would look better a glossy white, that way it would match our existing frames that we have in our house. In addition to painting the frame white, I planned on using caulk to fill in the miter edge, the seam looked wide. I love this bright bird print, but the fake matte and border made the print look so cheap. The only way for the print to standout and look amazing was to buy a new crisp matte.

Up close you can see the miter corners that need help & the tacky fake matter and border that makes the bird print look silly and cheap.

Next up the tree art work my husband found. I'm still shocked he found this & that we only paid

$ 2.50 for it! It's a nice size piece 22inches wide by 19 inches long. We both loved the picture, but thought the mustard yellow matte was taking away from the print and not enhancing it. I also loved the heavy duty well built frame, but knew the color was too dark for our space. Again I knew a white coat of paint would be bring new life to the frame.

Another plus, is the tree art had been previously custom framed, talk about a score we got.

Because both framed are in good condition { minus } there color, I knew the only extra cost to the art update since we hoard white glossy spray paint in the garage would be mattes. Since both pieces of artwork are old size and not stock matte sizes, I knew I would have to order custom mattes. That's just what I did, I stop into Michael's framing department and placed an order for two custom mattes. I've always feared getting custom anything related to framing, because custom framing is expense!

After I came home from Michael's. I began the task of removing the paper backing on each frame along with the old hanging wires. The bird frame, had a really nasty backing on it full of funky stains.

I carefully removed each picture from the frames. Under the paper backing on the tree picture, I found a stamp saying Cresent. More than likely its Cresent City, California. I've been there once its very pretty. The city is right on the ocean and is almost on the California / Oregon border. I'm guessing the picture was taken in Cresent City of maybe even in the Redwoods { which are amazing!}

Next, Mr. CLH will be spraying painting the frames and hopefully our custom mattes will be ready for pickup tonight. I'll have a budget breakdown in part two.

What do you think of the thrifty art we bought? Have you found art artwork from a thrift store that was fab or needed a little artfull update?

PS: Don't forget to enter the CLH Giveaway: For your chance to a Win a print from

 Our Humble A { bowe } d! Click Here to Enter.