Canvas isn’t too expensive from Amazon or Costco, and you can get plain old acrylic paint from Michaels. I got a cheap brush set from Costco, a bunch of plastic cups from Target for soaking them while I’m painting, and plain paper plates for palettes. If you ever want to get a feel for painting, there are plenty of paint and sip places around the US that will let you try out either a standard (weekly or session-based) painting or a custom one (my partner and I have painted our dog 6 times so far and have a dedicated art wall for the little goober) and also you can drink wine while you do it! I tend to do smaller pieces (usually 8x8 since I also take some to work to decorate my cubicle) and just use command strips to apply them to the walls in our apartment, but you can absolutely take the time to mount them properly with nails and wire if you want.

I genuinely can’t recommend it enough. If you want to make things truly BIFL, you can put a layer of polyurethane over them to prevent any flaking. I haven’t had any yet, but I’ve only been doing this for 3-4 years so far. My grandmother was a painter and used acrylic for about 50 years and her paintings have held up perfectly this whole time. I have one she made when I was born (almost 30 years ago) that is still pristine.

My first foray happened when I, an 80's/90's child, saw my neighbour's creepy dead tree get struck by lightning in the middle of a snow storm, and a big branch fell off. This seemed overwhelmingly magical and prophetic to me, a weirdo, and I had to have that branch. So, in the middle of the night, in this blizzard, I snuck across the road and Smeagoled it into my basement.

It was gorgeous and perfect, only mildly bug-ridden kind of stinky. I sanded it down and, with the power of my 67 elderly aunts forgotten yarn stashes, turned it into a beautiful "textile" hanging.

This took almost a year because I, at the time, had wildly uncontrolled ADHD.

But, since then, I've made a few big plaster pieces out of thrift store canvases, plaster from the hardware store, and random tools that people with unfinished basements have.

I made another fallen branch into a giant lamp with a $20 jute covered light cord. And another into a big floral piece to fill a big empty space over a large doorway.

I found a huge abandoned wood framed mirror that used to be attached to a dresser, sanded it down, did some woodburning, attached a shelf to the bottom, added some plants, and that easily filled an empty wall.

I've also recently been making small watercolours to fit thrifted frames and I'm planning to fill a small space with those.

I live in an old house with lots of rooms, and high ceilings; all this eclectic DIY art definitely wouldn't work for everyone's home, but it's fitting here!