Making Five Dollar Art Alongside Colored Paper

Remember that grid of eight Ribba frames above our sectional (that we got right the second time around)?

Well, we figured out some in-the-meantime “art” for them (so we do not have to stare at those brown squares every night). You know, until we come up with something better. And it only cost us five bucks. Okay, $5.17 if you are being picky. So worth it.

We are still not 100% sure what we want there in the long run, but we are leaning towards something graphic and colorful. And since the brown frame back is the opposite of that, we hoped to at least put something in there temporarily that would not cost much or take any time to toss together. Enter one of our go-to solutions: 12 x 12″ craft paper from Michael’s.

We picked out eight sheets that complement Sue (aka: our inspiration napkin). They were the ideal size to slip in our 12 x 12 Ribba frames and at about 60 cents a pop it was kind of a no-brainer.

We tried a few distinct arrangements on the floor before putting anything in frames. Since we had picked a couple of duplicate colors, we hoped to keep them far sufficient away from one another, so we ended up with this grouping:

The frames certainly helped them feel less like sixty-cent craft paper and more like something worthy of being displayed behind glass (seriously, what cannot you slap in a frame for a more polished look?). It certainly brought in that temporary injection of color we were looking for, and it was kind of reminiscent of the cool art that we saw – and enjoyed – in this House Crashing adventure from back in the day (aka: a month ago).

It is kind of like a simplified version of Sue the napkin now lives on our walls, eh?

We have been living with them for the last 24 hours and might be in danger of falling in love with them as a not-so-temporary solution. Uh oh.

They simply look so much nicer than the brown frame backs they covered. In fact, what we are thinking that we might do is try to build on the concept somehow, like adding some modern white doilies, stencils, or layering some other pattern in front of them so we still can enjoy the color scheme that “shows through” while creating something a little more graphic. Nearly like a custom version of those Classical Symmetry prints from Crate & Barrel (this set of six retails for $369, btw).

Or we might still consider doing the personal photo thing by using the colorful paper as large mats around small square black & white pictures. Sherry even mentioned sticking compact fortune cookie fortunes in the center of each colored sheet of paper. So you have to get truly close to read them. ‘Til we decide on anything, we are kinda loving the cost-of-a-Subway-footlong solution for these eight frames. And of course we will keep you posted when we at last get around to updating them for the long haul.

Do you folks have any colorful art that you are loving? Or affordable sets of images that you’ve spotted? Oh and how cool is this solution to empty Ribba frames that Krissy posted on our Facebook page? As Sherry says (way too much) “um yeah, enjoy it.”

Psst- We announced the winner of this week’s giveaway. Click here to see if it is you.