When Mama sees the perfect art for her living room and then finds out it has a $3000 price tag, Mama quickly becomes resourceful. I’ve seen this piece used in several design projects and have always admired it. When I recently decided to give our living room a more neutral update, I pictured it over our fireplace.
It was created during the Art Deco movement by textile designer and painter Paule Marrot. I love how it’s simple and bold all at the same time. I also love that it’s pretty easy to recreate if you don’t have an extra $3K to spend on art. . . Here’s my take:
floor lamp // pillow // rug // sofa
I bought the big (30×40”) canvas at Michael’s for just $12 when they on sale. Besides that, I just needed a can of off-white spray paint, a little flat black paint, an artist’s brush, a sponge brush and some painter’s tape.
I started by spraying the entire canvas off-white. I wanted the background to be soft like the original and less stark than leaving it white. When it was dry, I taped off the edges with painter’s tape to give it a clean border (a trick I’ve used before).
I grabbed my round coffee canister lid and a small square canvas to create my shapes and then outlined them with the black paint and a small brush.
Time to fill in the shapes. I sponge brushed this. My reason? The sponge was 77 cents. It worked just fine. . . (I used two coats.)
This piece totally changed the feel of the room. (Here’s a look at what was there before.) Did you notice I also layered in a neutral striped rug? One thing always leads to another. . .
PS—I keep a Pinterest board of “art I like” but some of it is art I think I could actually recreate myself. . .
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