I like to think of my bedroom as my own personal museum. When I decorate my walls, I’m not just slapping just any picture I find on the walls. I’m curating! I might be an amateur curator with a penchant for Lisa Frank and CD poster inserts, but I’m still making conscious decisions about what I buy, where I’m putting it, and how the pieces compliment one another. I’m a decorating dork, deal with it.
But art can be so expensive! Where does a broke person get it? I can’t just waltz over to my neighborhood auction house and scoop up a Chagall original. I don’t have the dollah billz for that! Sometimes prints, depending on how rare or big they are, can cost upwards of $500. Lanky lizards! Can’t a girl get some reasonably priced artwork?!
Well, you can! You just need to know where to look. Here are a few websites and stores that sell beautiful and interesting artwork and posters that will help you start your collection.
1. 20×200
20×200 is dedicated to selling awesome artwork at reasonable prices. All the prints are available in a few sizes, with the price going up depending on how large the work is and how many are available. New prints come in every week and include photos, paintings, and drawings. A 10″x8″ print will cost you about $20 and will come with a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist, along with the artist’s bio and statement. You can even add a frame! Damn, you’ll feel like such an art insider!
Left to right: “Untitled #10” by Kent Rogowski; “Thank You” by Trey Speegle
2. Poketo
I love Poketo! They carry everything art-related for your home, not just to hang on your wall. They have prints, dishware, mousepads, and more! But Poketo is probably best known for their artful wallets. Here’s a full list of all the artists they carry.
“Swan Lake Promenade” by PCP; “The Middletons Plate Set” by Marco Cibola
3. MOMA online store & other museums
Don’t forget that some of the biggest American museums sell prints online. I personally love the MOMA’s store, but other museums like the Boston MFA, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Met all sell artwork. I found a 24″x18″ print of Frida Kahlo’s “Self Portrait With Monkeys” at the Philadelphia Museum website for $20. Frida can hang out in your room!
“Birthday” by Marc Chagall; “Drowning Girl” by Roy Lichtenstein
4. Etsy Movie Poster Sellers & AllPosters.com
Movie posters are art! There are so many awesome poster designers who are selling their work on Etsy. I love when artists redesign old posters, giving classic films a modern edge. Some of my favorite sellers are MonsterGallery (these Fantastic Mr. Fox prints are so good!), Claudia Varosio, and TeamWelser. And if you want classic movie posters just go on to AllPosters.com. Hey, somebody buy me this Pink Flamingos poster!
“Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me” by Traumatron; “Big Lebowski A3 Print MATURE” by VisualEtiquette
5. Individual artists’ websites
A lot of artists and photographers have their own websites where they sell their work. Some of my favorite artists like Krisatomic, Ian Stevenson, and Hennie Haworth all sell their stuff online! Buying straight from the artist ensures that she or he is benefiting directly from the purchase, rather than having a big chunk of the proceeds go to a gallery or print carrier.
“Teacups 2” by Hennie Haworth; “Fifties Girl” by Krisatomic
6. Thrift stores and flea markets
When most people think of shopping at thrift stores, they think of clothing. But there are tons of artistic treasures buried in Goodwills across America! The two embroidered works pictured on the right above were made by hand and are dated from the 1950s. My mother found them in a Goodwill, and they were literally $2 each. The painting on the left is a paint-by-numbers that I found for cheap at a flea market. I later found out that the same painting was hanging in Nadine’s house on Twin Peaks. Wow! Never underestimate thrift stores when it comes to finding decorations for your walls.
Pictured from left to right: “Forbidden Unions Screen Print” by Heretic, “Mob Screen Print, Blue” by Andrew Rae
7. Hermit Editions
Not only does Hermit Editions sell awesome prints by some of my all-time favorite artists like Andrew Rae, Jon Burgerman, and Heretic, BUT they also have another store dedicated to clothing, home wares, books, and zines, so I would check that out too!
And of course you can always make YOUR OWN art too! Tear from magazines, draw on the walls, glue poster inserts to the ceiling, make pipe-cleaner sculptures, use wrapping paper as wallpaper! GET CREATIVE! If your parents get mad tell them to write to Tavi. ♦
My blank walls are glaring at me now for keeping them so naked.
I have a chalkboard, a mirror, and some framed photos I took at the Botannical gardens.
But a little birdie told me my mommy got me some wall art for christmas.
awesome post(: I have to check out all these artists…as I haven’t heard of any of them.
Log in to replyooh I love these! thanks for introducing me to the Etsy sellers! off to check them out..
Log in to replyI wish I could decorate my room, but I share it with my little sister. I get by with decorating the walls around my bed (I sleep in a bottom bunk) with CD and magazine covers, and one cheesy poster won from my school book fair in 5th grade (Pirates of the Caribbean). When I have a house and my own room, it will be plastered with artwork everything I love EVERYWHERE. All this writing about rooms makes me want to make my room mine… But it won’t be for quite a while. *sigh*
Log in to replyHahah I don’t have a job so I literally can’t afforn anything BUT I do rip Marc Jacobs out of fashion mags and put them on my walls….I have a whole “wall of Marc” in my basement.
It’s pretty sweet.
Little&Trivial
Log in to replybefore i got the juergen teller for marc jacobs book for the holidays last year i tried making my own by cutting out his ads from all of my magazines. still have it stapled together somewhere..
Log in to replyShit. I mean ‘afford’ and Marc Jacobs ‘ads’.
Log in to replyThanks for the decorating inspiration!! All I have on my walls right now is a poster of Totoro from Chinatown. Oh and btw MOMA is one of my favorite museums. :)
Log in to replyOld, dirt-cheap (and even those horribly scratched) vinyl records at flea markets make cool wall art too! :)
Log in to replysociety6.com is also really great!
Log in to replyerm, we actually do have some signed Chagalls because of a family friend yadda yadda.
Log in to replybut thanks for these! i also found this guy but I haven’t bought from him.
What about finding fashion photograph prints online- do you know of any good website for that? Where you maybe even purchase prints of magazine editorials or something? That would be so cool!
Log in to replyBread & Puppet (out of VT) sells a lot of “cheap art”. A lot of it is block-y prints – either original or copies – with simple pictures and a word or two.
Log in to replyOn my walls I have an original 80′s “The Queen is Dead” Smiths poster, a poster from when I went to Christian Dior’s house in France last summer when there was and exhibition called “Le Grand Bal” and was full of the most beautiful couture. My auntie wrote to CD’s house (We live in England) and got a poster sent after the exhibition had ended.
Log in to replyA film wall with memorabilia and reviews of some of my favourite films (High Fidelity, Girl Interrupted, Pulp Fiction ect)
A art print signed by Frank Iero.
My ticket board from past concerts, shows and festivals.
An Audrey Hepburn canvas and lipstick kiss marks on one wall in all different shades relating to Hole songs and the best thing on my walls, a Barry Manilow picture with my head photoshopped on (strange friends 2k11)
Yeah, I think I need to take some stuff down…
ohmigod, lovegoodideas, my whole extended family lives in Vermont like half an hour away from Bread and Puppet!! They’re in all the parades up there, I’ve seen them like literally every summer since I was born. this isn’t really significant in any way but I kind of thought it was weird and interesting, haha.
Log in to replyI’M GETTING TOO MANY EMAILS FROM ANGRY PARENTS!
Log in to replyMy walls are completely covered. I always maintain that the cheapest way to put art on your walls is to go to the bookstore, flip through magazines to find pictures you like, and then buy said magazine. Juxtapoz has great images, for example. Tear out the pages you like and post ‘em on your wall. Done. And BONUS: You also get to read the magazine.
Log in to replyI have a whole wall completely covered with magazine pages, and I used to frame my door with CDs, but they kept falling off so I had to take them down and put up some of the little booklet-things inside that turn into posters. It actually looks pretty cool, but my favourite thing is the Hangover poster I have on my door.
All Posters has some pretty good stuff, although I haven’t actually bought any posters off it yet. 20×200 sounds really cool–I can’t wait to check it out!
Log in to replyI love this site, but I’ve never commented before. this post drove me to.
I would like to add- POSTCARDS. yes, they are small, but they are also cheap. 90% of the things on my walls are postcards. some are souvenirs, but most of them are from art museums. actual prints of paintings are way bigger and nicer, but for the cash-strapped (or the indecisive), postcards are usually like $1.50 or $2. that means you can get 10 or 15 postcards of different paintings and sculptures for the price of one print.
also, one of my postcards is of Drowning Girl! Roy Lichtenstein is the best.
Log in to replyI am currently trying to cover my ugly cream walls, as my parents won’t let me paint a mural on them :(
I read your bit in Prospect magazine Tavi! My dad and brother get it every month!
Platform Shoes x
Log in to reply