DIY Interior Design is often overly centred on you and your personal tastes, down to the cheap canvas prints you hang on the walls. That’s not to say that your home or workspace shouldn’t be centred on you – after all, it’s your space and you’re the one who will spend time there – of course it should reflect your taste and personality. But sometimes having room after room with your own photography on the walls in the form of custom canvas prints can start to feel a bit too insular and too self-regarding. In other words, it pays to mix things up a little bit.
A print on canvas showing your kids or your best vacation shots here and there makes a home feel lived-in and loved. Having them everywhere starts to feel a little off-putting to visitors.
One fantastic solution is to mix in some great pieces of art as part of your collection of cheap canvas prints. In the past this wasn’t so easy, as most museums are far away, don’t allow photography, and “official” prints can be very expensive and didn’t have the warmth of canvas. Today, though, you can find almost any piece of classic or contemporary art you want online and run them through a canvas prints online service to get any painting your want in your home, with a high-quality canvas look.
Classic Art Printing on Canvas
If your tastes run to the old-school, the Monet and Rembrandt and van Dykes of the art world, there are plenty of resources for you to consider.
Your first step would be the actual museum that the particular piece is displayed at. Many museums these days have created online digital archives of their collections with high-quality scans and photos which you can purchase reasonably or even download for free.
Alternatively, we have partnered with Fotolia, an online image leader to give you access to more then 27 million royalty free stock photos. Please click here to check out the whole range – for example, how about da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man in your home office or study?
Finding Contemporary Art
Contemporary Art can be a little more difficult to locate decent images of for turning into canvas prints online; this could be because so-called “modern art” still gets less respect than the classics, and it’s also easier for some people to locate a “style” of art just about anywhere. For example, you may love the works of Jackson Pollock but if you’re not an aficionado or expert, there are plenty of Pollock knock-offs out there that look smashing in a room.
If you’re looking for the real-deal, however, there are few online collections of images like there are with classic paintings. Instead you’ll have to rely on two main tools:
- Google. Google Images can be a hit-or-miss affair when it comes to image quality, but you can usually find decent images of just about any painting you’re looking for.
- Museums. Many museums, especially those with government funding, have made at least some of their collections available online. One great example is the National Gallery of Australia, where they’ve created a searchable database (http://artsearch.nga.gov.au) that will display scans of painting for you (including 2 Pollocks!).
Don’t make your home all about you – some fine art mixed in with the smiling kids and the cats and dogs will add that touch of class. When you’ve found your favourite paintings online, click here and we’ll give them that museum-quality look as a print on canvas!
