This week’s craft project made me nervous, I won’t lie. For the past six weeks I’ve enjoyed quick, simple crafts like making a fall wreath, stenciling a pillow, painting baskets, decorating pumpkins and gourds, creating vacation keepsake globes, and trying ceramic paint on a bowl full of colorful cacti. Those projects typically took under an hour and were straightforward—paint this, wrap that, caulk this—so I don’t know what possessed me this week to try painting a small portrait of our first house.
It took me far longer than any other Weekly Crafty project—about five times as long—and I was on edge the whole time. It’s a simple, charming little piece and John really likes it. If you could see where it started, you’d understand how much it changed. This blog is about sharing the good, the bad, and the messy, so here’s how it went.
I used a 10 x 10″ canvas from JoAnn (picked up during a 50% off sale for about $4) and acrylic paints I already owned. If you need to buy a set, they’re generally around $12 at most art or craft stores, though some retailers price them higher expecting coupons.
The most thrilling—and cringe-inducing—part was watching the painting develop. I took a series of photos as I built the piece in layers. Many stages made me groan, but I kept going, channeling a Dory-style mantra: “Just keep painting, just keep painting.”
I’ll break down the progression step-by-step in case you want to try a similar small portrait and wonder how it was layered.
- Step 1: I started with a quick base coat—green across the bottom for grass and blue on top for sky. Both felt a bit bright and primary, but they were just a foundation for later layers.
- Step 2: Using an old photo of the house, I sketched the basic shape onto the canvas, including chimneys and the overall perspective. The initial brown I used for the house felt heavy, but I planned to layer over it.
- Step 3: I painted the roof black and added some red over the brick to neutralize the dark brown. I also outlined edges with a thin black line to add dimension.
- Step 4: After the red dried, I added shutters, chimney caps, and a lattice element with black paint. I worked mostly with one flat-tipped brush, cleaning it between steps. The brush’s edge helped create tidy lines for shutters and lattice.
- Step 5: I mixed a few shades of green and blocked in bushes and trees on either side of the house. Mixing tones helped avoid a flat look.
- Step 6: I added white details for the porch and window ledges. I hadn’t accounted for the porch in the roofline, so I adjusted the roof and lightened the neon-green foundation by mixing white into the grass color.
- Step 7: I lightened the trees and bushes with more layered greens, working with colors on a plate and blotting excess on paper towels as I went.
- Step 8: I added two front trees and experimented with a gray-brown wash on the roof and foliage. It looked muddy at first, but it helped create depth.
- Step 9: The gray-brown felt dirty, so I layered lighter greens over it. I also realized roofs often pick up reflected tones from surrounding foliage, so I introduced a subtle green tint on the roof and porch to harmonize the scene.
- Step 10: I used the handle end of the brush to add small raised dots to represent white azaleas on the bushes. I liked the effect so much I went a little overboard and dotted other areas, then painted some of those back where they didn’t belong. In the end I kept the dots where they felt sweetest—mostly on the bushes and a few in the grass.
After several tweaks and a long stare, I decided it was finished. The work took roughly five hours total, spread across three days, and I genuinely enjoyed the process. One comforting thing about acrylics is that you can always paint over something you don’t like—endless do-overs are allowed.
Once it was dry, I asked an artist friend what she uses to seal acrylics, and she recommended Liquitex High Gloss Varnish. I picked up a small bottle at Michaels with a coupon and applied three thin coats about four hours apart. The varnish is thin and brushes on like a poly finish; a small bottle should last through many small paintings.
I hung the finished piece in the office corner. John’s been generous with compliments, saying it looks great there. I think it might look even better paired with a second painting—maybe of our second house—if I get the itch to paint again.
Up close, I admit it’s pretty cute, so here’s a detail shot. I considered painting the canvas sides white, green, or charcoal, but ultimately wrapped the image around the edges—continuing the sky, trees, bushes, and grass—which I think was the right choice.
Thinking back, I wish I’d painted the middle tree behind the house in a lighter green and the outer trees slightly darker to create a halo of light around the house. That subtle contrast might have made the composition read a little better.
Have any of you painted a house portrait? Did you use paint, mixed media, a digital filter, or capture and frame a photograph? I’d love to hear how you approached it and what techniques you tried.