as you’ve witnessed, N and i make a LOT of art. she has her own portfolio where we keep her works, and we have also been hanging them on the fridge and on walls. when we moved into our new place in northern california, i decided to create an art gallery for N in her bedroom, where she can proudly display her masterpieces!
el museo de N
i realize that pottery barn kids (and the like) sell a lot of cute, pre-fab art display kits, but that’s just no fun for us DIY girls in my household. so i got some kitchy-cool, assorted cabinet knobs (somehow i have a bag of these around the house, waiting for a special occasion such as this) and some picture wire from michaels (framing section.) thin rope and yarn would probably work, as well. we strung the wire up on N’s wall with the knobs screwed into the wall at the endpoints. for longer wire, eye-screws work to keep things lifted along the way.
knobs anchoring the art wire
then i found the bag of plain old clothespins i had at home, and decided they needed some gussying up! i modpodged pretty papers (a few are even pieces of N’s paintings) onto some of the clothespins. from this, i learned that modpodge doesn’t adhere to wood, so i had to glue it down in the back first. i painted others. then i craft-glued shells, buttons, figurines, and assorted fun things from around our art studio to the bottom part of the pins. (if they were glued to the top, pinching the pin might get hairy. this is why i did this as a mommy project instead of involving a 2.5-year-old.) kids even just a bit older might have the dexterity to decorate their own clothespins.
decorating clothespins
here’s a set of 18 that i whipped up during N’s nap today:
fancy!
after the wire was hung and the clothespins were fancy, it was time to hang the art! N chose her favorite pieces to oh-so-proudly display, and we made her bedroom into a museum!
wall of masterpieces
some other fun ideas for storing and displaying your kids’ art that i’ve run across:
- install curtain rods on walls, and string curtain rings or shower curtain rings/hooks on them with which to attach art
- laminate your favorites to use as placemats
- create a yearly calendar with 12 of your favorite pieces to give as a holiday gift (and keep one for your house!)
- use art as gift wrap and for greeting cards
- hang small pieces from a photo mobile (amazon sells one that’s shown below)
- frame favorites in simple frames with white mats. hang in your playroom, kids’ room, kitchen, hallway, anywhere! rotate new pieces into the gallery periodically.
- use fun clips that you find at target or office supply stores (even chip clips or paper clips) to attach art to colorful rope or yarn strung along a wall or the ceiling
- print your kids’ art onto anything on moo.com or cafepress.com
- blissfully domestic has some great ideas for framing your child’s art, too!
