Filling the walls of your home with beautiful art doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, it can be completely free! (Minus the cost of printing). But how?
Did you know that many museums offer an Open Access collection online where you can download, share, and reuse thousands of the museum’s digital images for free? I discovered this a couple years ago and have been been like a kid in a candy store ever since. I have spent tons of time curating my own beautiful collection of 60+ pieces of vintage paintings, sketches, etc. and downloading them to my computer so that whenever I want to add or switch out the art in my home, all I have to do is choose one from my collection, get it printed, and voila!
Browsing thousands of images can obviously be very time consuming, and my welcome letter for blog subscribers includes direct links to 7 of my favorite art pieces that I have curated and used throughout my home for you to download for free! Click here to subscribe to my email list and get those delivered directly to your inbox.
You can see some of those pieces and how I have used free museum art downloads throughout my home below:
How can I find and download free art myself?
If you’d like to browse and start curating your own collection of free digital art, you can do so through many museums Open Access collections online. These Open Access collections offer digital versions of art, copyright free, to the public to download, share, and reuse as they wish. Below are my two favorites:
Tips for sorting through thousands of images:
- I typically search oil paintings because that’s what I’m drawn to, or you can search specific terms like landscape, Paris, Portraits, etc.
- If you find a work of art you are drawn to while you are browsing, try searching that artist’s name to find more of their work! (I discovered a favorite artist – Frank Edwin Scott on the Smithsonian website. His work is beautiful and I especially adore his series of paintings from Paris. Two of the paintings I have in my home (included above) are his. Try searching his name and check it out!
- Keep your home’s style and color palette in mind, and choose pieces you are drawn to or that have some sort of meaning to you and your family. Most of the art in my home tells a story and is personal to us on some level. It is so fun to make those connections with art. Have fun exploring!
How do I get my digital downloads onto my walls?
You may need to crop, straighten, and resize some images slightly, and then you are ready to display them! Here are the ways I have displayed some of my free museum art downloads in my home:
- Get them printed in standard sizes and stick them in a frame. Perfect for hanging on walls, using in galleries, and styling on shelves, mantels, etc.
If you need it quick, I sometimes use same day pick-up options like Walgreens or Costco, but Mpix is my ultimate favorite source for printing photographs & art, and I generally recommend sticking to more matte photo finishes (not glossy). Mpix now offers Giclee Prints as well which is ideal for art! I am so excited to try printing some of mine on it!
- Print on canvas
You can get canvases printed lots of places. They do them at Mpix, and I found a great deal on them at Costco when I printed the Three Trees painting for our kitchen. (I built my own wood frame and added a hinge to use it as a thermostat cover. You can order them already framed as well.)
- Go oversized!
In our dining room I ordered one of my favorite paintings as an oversized rolled canvas from U-Printing and stretched it into the IKEA BJORKSTA frame. You can find details on my process for that HERE.
- Display as art on your TV
This works especially well with the Frame TV which is what we have, but I know there are apps and features that let you display art on other TVs as well. For the Frame, just make sure to crop the image and resize to the correct aspect ratio (16×9), then follow the directions the TV gives you to get it from your phone or computer to your TV.
There are so many ways to bring beautiful, affordable art into your home. I hope you enjoy exploring these museums online, finding art that speaks to you, and filling your home with it!
