Affordable Art  To Decorate Your Home  is easy. Decorating your new home with art doesn’t have to mean an expensive trip to your local gallery. Collecting art can be an expensive habit, but these days there are plenty of places to get amazing original art for a great price. Whether you like prints, fine art oil paintings or abstract collage, we’ve got a source for you.

The Siesta Key Farmers Market is a Sunday morning tradition since 2008 from 8am to 2pm, the Siesta Key Farmers Market offers a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, fine art by artist Vanessa Simonard and Lloyd Dobson, Jamaican prepared foods and pastries, hot breakfast, organic green tea, local plants, Italian olive oils, artisan breads, organic skin care products, clothing, jewelry, photography, pottery, and live music.

For additional affordable art visit the following online website galleries:

www.LloydDobsonArtist.com

www.VanessaSarasota.blogspot.com

Below are some additional ideas. The key to decorating on a budget is to think laterally. This guide aims to give you some ideas.

1) Family Frame

Sometimes it helps to think outside the frame. We turned this divided window into a frame perfectly scaled for over the sofa. Sand, prime, and repaint a salvage-yard window, then fit a precut mat and a favorite photo into each opening. Keep them in place with framer’s glazing points (find them at crafts stores). We added a vintage knob to give our new artwork old-fashioned character.

2) Curate Your Blooms

You’d be surprised how beautiful close-up photos of flowers can be–even the snapshots you take with your own digital camera. Take your favorite flower images to your local photo center. Have them enlarged to enhance the details, and ask that they be printed on canvas, rather than photo paper. Crisp white frames make these pretty petals pop, but you could simply stretch the canvases over frames for a modern edge.

3) Measure Up

You can scoop up old rulers–some with cool retro logos–for a few bucks. These bird prints, cut from the pages of a dime-store book, match the old-fashioned vibe. We used wood glue to affix the rulers to cheap wooden frames. The rulers are applied differently on each frame to keep things interesting.

4) Magnetic Attraction

A message center can be a lifesaver for on-the-go families. This project takes that concept a step further. Rather than one boring bulletin board, the entire wall is coated in four coats of magnetic primer and a top coat of yellow. This way the even the littlest members of the family can contribute artwork and special notes.

DIY Tip: We love this idea for a work space or crafts room, as well. Instead of an inspiration board for your latest projects, you could have an entire wall of inspiration!

5) Jewel Box

If jewelry looks dazzling on you, it makes sense that it could dress up walls, too. We bought cheap thrift-store frames and backed them with fiberboard covered in pretty paper. We used old cabinet knobs and pushpins to hang necklaces and bracelets. For earrings, we secured two lengths of ribbon horizontally across a frame, using thumbtacks to reinforce it. Earrings dangle from the ribbon. Even brooches and pins have a home here. We backed one frame with corkboard, so pins slide in easily. No more digging through cluttered drawers for the pearls–it’s grab and go.

5) Natural Instincts

These are not your 4-year-old’s sun-catchers. Our sophisticated project brings refined outside style to inside spaces. We plucked single leaves from a hosta, fern, caladium, and palm, then sandwiched them between framed panels of glass. (You can find the frames at crafts stores.) Cup hooks screw inconspicuously to the window trim, and the frames dangle from eye hooks via thin chains.

DIY Tip: Swap out the leaves every few weeks when they begin to brown. For a long-lasting display, use dried leaves coated with acrylic artist’s spray to prevent discoloration.

We invite you to stop by the Siesta Key Farmers Market and say hello or visit our website at www.SiestaKeyBlueWave.com for the latest happening on Siesta Key.

Resources: www.bhg.com/decorating/