duct tape art

I love me some good art. Original art. It's a total indulgence. I love buying a piece anytime I go to an art festival. My checking account loves it too. And so does my husband. Ha. Lately, the art buying indulgence hasn't been indulged. There's this thing called a broke down car that makes art buying difficult. 

Here's where old gift cards come into play. Fresh off of our wedding we had some Pottery Barn credit to use when we were in New Orleans. Frames are not cheap. That's fo sho. So all our credit went toward three big silver wall frames. 

But, alas, there was no art to fill them. I planned on weaseling my way into a few small, inexpensive art purchases, but that would have had to wait at least until the next day, and I'm not what you call patient. I was way too anxious to hang them on our very big, empty walls in the Lower Garden District. So, if you're desperate and cheap, here's what you do.

You grab a big round of duct tape and get your roll on. Since I didn't photograph this project, I went back and experimented using electrical tape - what you see below. 

In fact, for my second shot at it, I got a little crazy and tried to really add some texture through layering. 

If you have a string handy, glue it into a shape before you tape over it. I tried the letter 'k.' 

I think it would be adorable if you laid out your kid's initials or the outline of a duck and taped over it with bright colored duct tape. Pretty clever duck pun, huh? But I'm boring and didn't have anything like this funky, colorful tape in the house. You can click below to buy a roll. I've also seen it at Home Depot.

Instead I used simple ole grey and came up with this.

It may not be for everyone, but I loved how color neutral and subtle it was. What was supposed to be a temporary solution is still hanging. Everything in our Lower Garden District apartment screamed traditional - the crown molding, the colors, the wood floors - which I LOVED. But I felt like it could go country quick if I wasn't careful. So I surprised myself into liking cleaner, more contemporary art to draw a contrast. Of course a year later, a picture of Annie eventually trumped the black tape (below) in one of the three frames, but it needed some pzazz in our Kansas City apartment anyway.

Thanks to a free $25 Shutterfly gift card I received when I registered for my baby shower at Target, we had this iPhone photo of her enlarged. That's called FREE art. How bout them apples? 

That beautiful hydrangea is from John who felt bad when I got into bed last week and recounted a long, serious story only to realize that he'd fallen asleep half way through. Mama wasn't too thrilled. But at least now we have fresh flowers in the house! When I begrudgingly asked him the next morning at what point he dozed off, he said, 'let's just say, I don't even remember the subject of the story. So you might want to start from the beginning.' No joke. He kills me.


Anyway, one of our three Pottery Barn frames now holds Annie's photograph but the other two (for the moment!) are still duct taped. 

From a distance in a photograph, they're boring. I admit it. But up close, they really are interesting and dynamic for cheap tape.

And there you have it. I'm not expecting to receive any accolades for skill or creativity with this project. But it is resourceful 'art' at its most basic!


Note: We've lived in so many houses in the last three years - 6 to be exact - that I have a hard time writing a post with pictures from only one of those places. This post has pictures in it from three different homes. Sorry it's always so jumbled!