Four Ways to Update Your Wall Art and Photo Frames

…on the cheap. I’ll say it once, and I’ll say it again: I’ve got champagne taste with a beer budget. While I hope to one day have all of my walls adorned with original art, that’s simply not in the cards for me at this point in my life. However, to do things on a budget does not mean that you need to compromise elegance. Most of my frames were housing prints that I’d had since college. Sorry, Van Gogh. “Almond Blossoms” stole my heart for a while, but I had to move on.

Here are four simple and affordable ways in which I updated my bedroom’s wall art and photo frames:

ONE // I made a poster collage via Printstagram, which is a super awesome company that links its website to your social media accounts and allows you to print all kinds of lovely things. The size of the poster that I went with costs $25 and fits most poster frames. I already had a poster frame that was (of course) too big for this print, so I ordered a pre-cut mat board to make it work. Well, it all worked out for the best because I ended up loving the look of it with the mat so much more. Even with the mat in the picture (uh, no pun intended), this project should cost no more than $50 bucks.

TWO // Do you have any photos that you’ve taken that you just love? Or at the very least have a photographer friend or family member whose work you really admire? Simply edit a couple of your/their shots and get them printed. As illustrated above, mat board makes everything look a touch more elegant. I edited these photos on iPhoto, got them printed through Apple and shipped to my doorstep, and framed them with pre-cut mat board from Blick Art Materials in Center City Philadelphia. All in all, the cost of this project is $15 for both frames.

THREE // While Printstagram offers 4×4 prints, the minimum amount that you can order at a time is 24. Sometimes, you don’t want 24 prints. Sometimes, you want only one print for that adorable, 4×4 picture frame you scored at Homegoods. That’s what the Walgreens app is really great for. It links to your Instagram account and prints however many (or however little) photos you desire. I believe this particular print cost me 42 cents? 44 cents? Either way, it was cheap and I love it.

FOUR // I couldn’t really capture the essence of how beautiful this print is, but it’s a “Map of the Plant Regions or Florae” and it’s an antique from an 1873 World Atlas. I love plants, I love maps, and I love antiques, so there shouldn’t be any mystery as to why I’m obsessed with this guy and wanted to showcase it. Unfortunately, being that it’s so old, its dimensions are bizarre and it doesn’t fit in standard-sized frames. Shocker: I went with mat board to solve this problem. However, this time I couldn’t go with pre-cut mat due to its odd size. The folks at Blick cut a custom mat board for me so that it now fits in a standard 11×14 frame. While custom generally means more money, this project still cost me less than $50. Vintage and antique maps can be found by the boatload on Etsy. Also, if you’re in the Philadelphia area, there is a vendor who sells beautiful maps at the Phila Flea Market.