Free Art for Kids' Bedrooms

When it comes to decorating nurseries and kids’ bedrooms, you go in knowing that in a year or two or maybe five (but probably not that long), everything will change. The occupant of the room is growing rapidly and with that growth comes change of hobbies and interests. And favorite colors. The 4-year-old that literally needs pink will undoubtably become the 14-year-old that literally hates pink.

We love the idea of keeping nursery and kid bedroom decor cost friendly. That way it won’t feel so painful when it’s phased out all too quickly. And today we have a whole bunch of ideas for finding that perfect, low cost, art for your favorite kiddo’s bedroom.

This entire gallery wall is chalk full of free art. So, let’s break it down.

Homemade Art

Your little one is an artistic genius. Whether finger painting or color by numbers or pencil sketches, your child’s art not only reflects his/her age but also his/her interests. It’s the perfect decor of the moment. And when you frame it, you’ll be amazed at how legit it looks. My daughter’s water color pieces rival Georgia O’Keefe. They do. They really do.

Free Printable Art from Pinterest

We first talked about free printable art in one of our early projects, Golden Girls Bedroom (back then we were naming projects based on the design…and being cutesy about it). For that project, we found a series of vintage flower prints and a personalized floral/letter print, all on Pinterest. All free. We printed everything at Staples and hung it all with washi tape. All in, the art element of the room cost about $10.

And this butterfly print (below) was also a free Pinterest find.

The best way to find free prints on Pinterest is to search “free printable art”. You can get a little more specific if you know exactly what you want (“free printable butterfly art” or “free printable art for kids bedroom”). Also, in a recent Wednesday Five I talked about my go-to website (The Little Umbrella) for free printable children’s art. There’s tons of content and it’s all adorable.

Greeting Cards

Cards these days are as beautiful a high end art (and they cost about the same). And, bonus, they’re sentimental. This is a Valentine’s Day Card…and a terrible photo. Sorry for the glare and the reflection of me with my phone. Shrug. Anyway, you don’t have to wait to be given the perfect card. Head to Paper Source and buy one.

Children’s Book Art

Frame your child’s favorite page from their favorite book. This one requires ruining a perfectly good book. But sometimes that’s fine. Maybe the book is sort of ruined anyway. Maybe you have an extra copy. Or, maybe you should get an extra copy (after all, it’s your child’s favorite book). Check yard sales or used book stores for the classics. The art in children’s books is often stunning and, again, sentimental.

Calendars

Calendars, much like greeting cards, can be seriously gorgeous. I used some amazing photos of animals from a National Geographic calendar in my kids’ bathroom (below). There are also some great landscape photo calendars and art print calendars (again, Paper Source is a great…source…for this). Once the month is over, that print is ready for primetime.

We would love to hear other places you have found free (or nearly free) art for your kid’s bedroom or for any space in your home. We would also love to see your free art framed and hung and glorious - send us a direct message on Instagram and we’ll feature it in our story.

We’ll be back on Wednesday for a breakdown of our week.

- Leah

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Wednesday Five - 15

It’s Wednesday!!! What, what. And we have five fun things to share.

1. Trend Alert: bust planters. Guys, these quirky beauties were everywhere at the Brimfield Antique Flea Market this month. They sort of remind us of chia pets…but way (WAY) elevated…but the same kind of ridiculous fun. Driven by Decor used one in their One Room Challenge this summer.

If you need in on this trend, and we think you do, here’s one from Ballard Designs (currently on sale!).

2. We recently joined the LiketoKnow.it network. If you don’t know what this is, it’s genius and you need to get on the wagon. It’s an app that let’s you shop images you like on Instagram. First, you take a screen shot of the Instagram image. Next, you open the LiketoKnow.it app. Then, the image automatically opens on the app and gives you all the sources of items in the image. That’s it. A shopping short cut like no other. We love it for home decor. Obviously. We also love it for our favorite fashion influencers.

Like everything else, you can “follow” accounts on LiketoKnow.it. And now, you can follow us! And, going forward, you can screen shot some of our Instagram images to shop them. While we won’t source client projects through LiketoKnow.it, we will source our personal projects. Like this one:

3. Sonia has a new obsession: Swedish Dream Sea Salt Hand Cream. And I get it. I’m one of those people who keeps hand cream in every room, every bag, every drawer and several places in my car. It’s everywhere. What can I say, I have dry hands. And while I'm a faithful L’Occitane devotee, Sonia’s so crazy about this stuff I’m going to give it a whirl. I was especially swayed when I read that it’s “free of Phthalates, Parabens, Sulfates, Silicones, EDTA, and Gluten”. Dry skin season is coming…

4. Chrissy Teigen has a kitchen line coming out at Target!!! Love a good collaboration. And this one is fantastical. She announced it on her social media accounts this past week and I’m so excited. I actually don’t care what the pieces look like. I just love Chrissy Teigen so much that I want to support all her endeavors. But, from the sneak peaks, the color palette is earthy and muted. The bowls and stoneware have a handmade feel. The overall vibe is minimal.

5. I finally finished reading Prep. I mean, when you’re reading 15 pages at a time, 400 pages will take a while. So, yeah, it took a good month, but it was great. A bit heavier than I thought it was going to be - I had thought it was a total beach read about all the drug and sex scandals at boarding school. This is a deeper read. It’s a true turning of age story. Lots of character development (again, it’s 400 pages). I definitely recommend it, just know what you’re getting in to.

So, what am I reading now? I just started When Life Gives You Lululemons. I can already tell (2 chapters in) that this is a beach read. I mean, the title kind of gave it away.

Have a great rest of your week!

- Leah

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Wednesday Five - 14

Happy Wednesday everyone. We have a great round-up of what’s been going on at Gray Oak Studio this past week. It’s been another busy one for us, sending our little ones off to school and beginning so many new and exciting projects.

1. We hit 1,000 followers on Instagram!

2. We had a fun, little photoshoot. Not for any completed project, but for us! Some new headshots for our website and social media accounts. Big shout out and thanks to Callan Photo for taking our photos and pretending like all people are THAT awkward when having their picture taken. If you follow us on Instagram…if you’re one of the 1k…you got to see some of those truly awkward behind the scenes moments. Stay tuned for more on this in the coming weeks.

3. If you don’t follow Copy Cat Chic, you should. It’s a website/social media account that finds the copy cat (less expensive) version of the hottest home furnishings and decor out there. Here’s a great example:

I subscribe and get a daily email of the copy cat of the day, I find it easier than following them on IG because I don’t want to miss a post!

4. Sonia went to the Brimfield Antique Flea Market, which is one of the biggest and bestest flea markets in the region. She saw so many goodies and scored a bunch for our clients! Here are some images from our Instastories:

5. And I got a new bag for fall. I love it. I LOVE IT (I just sang that as I wrote). I was really torn on what color to get and ended up going with the camel, which is gorgeous, but I also love the taupe. I’m still in the phase where I need snacks, diapers and wipes with me at all times and this gracefully handles it all. Is there ever a phase when snacks at all times isn’t necessary?

Sorry to be brief this week. The stomach bug crawled its way into my house, despite being firmly told NEVER TO COME BACK - back to school germs have arrived - and my blogging night has been intermittently interrupted by sanitizing sheets and scrubbing everything and questioning whether I’m nauseous or paranoid.

Until next week!

- Leah

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