If you're looking for a no-cost way to update your walls, click over to Vintage Printables and start shopping. Don't be scared off by the sometimes clunky site -- it's chock-full of fabulous high-resolution, downloadable, free images that have been hand-selected by "Swivelchair," a biopharma worker who has a serious love for collecting out-of-copyright scientific illustrations. Luckily for those of us who would rather hang WPA-era posters on our walls than detailed drawings of the human heart, "Swivelchair" has collected those too. Botanicals, travel posters, curiosities -- you name it, and Vintage Printables has probably got it.
So have fun choosing, then bring your selections to your local copy center and print 'em out poster size, or go cheap like me and use your own color printer and an old frame that needs a new tenant.
{Thanks to Design Mom for sharing this great find!}
Last summer I was poking around a bookstore in Vermont and came across Mice, Morals & Monkey Business, an incredible children’s book filled with gorgeous block prints by artist Christopher Wormell. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to have it – not for our kids’ library, but for my kitchen wall.
When we got home, I hit my fab local stationery shop and picked up decorative paper that coordinated with the prints in the book, along with several LP album frames (thin metal frames with plexiglass fronts meant to showcase vintage vinyl). Using the frame backer as a template, I cut the decorative paper to the exact size of the frame. Then I went to town on Mr. Wormell’s masterpiece. First, using a box cutter (an X-acto knife might be better, but I don’t have one on hand) and great caution, I nicked the seams throughout the inside of the book, loosening up most of the pages. Then I carefully took apart the binding of the book with the knife. I trimmed the rough edges of the pages I wanted to frame and using double stick tape, attached the pages to the decorative paper. After repeating the trimming and taping process with the rest of the pieces, I popped them all into the frames and hung them up.