'Drawing a Blank, Not Anymore'

Find interesting artwork at local flea markets

The same way that people might try to fill an awkward silence with words and a newspaper editor might look to fill a news hole with a story, most people cannot bear to have a cold empty wall at the home.

Don’t stare at that blank wall anymore. Here a few wall solutions to get you feeling warm and homey again:

• Comb the flea markets. Look for original artwork and showcase your finds on the wall. Don’t limit yourself to the typical prints, but scour vendors for one-of-a-kind quilts, cross-stitch pieces, oil and watercolor paintings. Mix and match the artwork on your wall for some visual panache.

• Cover your walls in cork board. Then tack on a few collage photo frames for a fun finish.

• Match your walls to your window treatments by taking a piece of complementary fabric and framing it. Within the frame, opt for some artwork or even photographs within for an unexpected twist.

Vintage posters enliven a bare wall

• Search high and low for vintage posters and calendars. My favorite still are to this day the old liquor advertisements from France or the travel posters advertising trips ito Cuba. Use poster hangars to slide it into a frame and then hang by a ribbon.

• There is nothing like a simple black-and-white exhibition of photographs that creates a classic, yet sophisticated wall space. If you do not have your own collection of black-and-white images to frame, look for black-and-white sketches of city scenes or landmarks.

Get creative when trying to mask that white wall

• Showcase your own brushwork – for those creative but artistically-challenged – by painting canvas in strips of acrylic paint color. Frame and mount on your wall in a square grid, or hang in a staggered formation.

• Get it all in one shot. Concentrate on a section of the blank wall and hang your favorite artwork, leaving little space in between. The artwork should of course tie in with the others so as to not to look like a disorderly mess.

• Have unwanted wallpaper that you don’t know what to do with? Find a new home for it on your unused wall. Except take the wallpaper and hang in a vertical strip with the help of a rod or wood dowel and some ribbon.

And say “hello” to an inviting wall that only accentuates the already great decorating found in your home.

-S. Gonzalez

*Photos courtesy of bhg.com