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The Design Inspirationalist

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The Design Inspirationalist

Category Archives: Edward Stuart

Yard Sales: What to Look for and What to Avoid

26 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by melissaoconnor in Edward Stuart, Guest Posts, Shopping

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

antique, art, artwork, china plates, clothing, dishware, frames, furniture, recycle, reuse, shopping, used, vintage, yard sales

Going to yard sales can not only save the money in your wallet, but it can also give you tons of inspiration! You know what they say—another man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

Going through yard sales can be frustrating at times, especially when you aren’t specifically looking for something. However, I got some top things to look for at yard sales, that’ll keep you on your toes, and inspire you into creating your own designs for your very own home.

Yard Sales: What to Look for and What to Avoid
Photo Credit: 92.9 Jack FM

Frames
Usually at yard sales, there is plenty of art work that they are trying to get rid of. Now, try to not pay attention to the art work within the frame (unless you really like it), and just look at the frame itself. Reusing old and unique antique framed art can really dress up the look in your living space.

Furniture
Let’s be more specific—wooden furniture. This way, you can aspire to decorate and design it in whichever fashion you like; even if it’s just refurnishing it. This is a quick and simple fix up, and something that can look great in your house: a dresser, a kitchen table, a night stand—you name it!

Dishware
This can include Tupperware, mason jars, or even china plates! You’ll be really surprised at some of the dishware found at yard sales. These are all things that are valuable and usable. If you’re able to get your hands on china plates, all the more power to you!

These three items can really help you narrow down what you’re searching for at yard sales, and can keep your eyes focused on the prize. These items can also be easily reused for decoration and design for your own home, resulting in overall happiness between seller and buyer. Even though there are great finds at yard sales, there are also things you want to stay away from.

Sleepwear
Now, this can all be up to you. Usually however, bugs like the home of used mattresses, sleeping bags, etc. There is a reason they are trying to sell this—and it’s better to stay away from it, rather than rack up exterminator fees.

Electronics
If they are selling any type of electronic (dvd player, mp3 player, etc.) it’s either because it’s out of date, or doesn’t work. Stay away from these!

Clothes
Unless the person you’re buying the clothes for is with you, then I would suggest not buying any sort of apparel. These clothes (even though you can find great deals) are loose, and were eventually formed to fit the seller. If you’re going to buy apparel, make sure and check the size, and the size of the person you’re buying it for.

Yard sales can be fun—you can find great deals, and amazing things to decorate the home. Just because someone else thinks it’s unusable, doesn’t mean you can’t recreate it to make a masterpiece of your very own. Get creative, and have fun!

Written by Edward Stuart

The Best of Hipster Decor

28 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by melissaoconnor in Edward Stuart, Guest Posts, The Home

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

art, hipster, jackalope, nintendo, paintings, record player, Starry Night, taxidermy, the 80s, Van Gogh, video games, vintage appliances

By the simple fact that the word “hipster” is mentioned in the title of this post, we know that “best” is a very relative term see-sawing uncertainly back and forth between irony and perfect sincerity, depending on context and possibly the weather. What we can say with certainty is that the following bits of genius are very hipster indeed. Let’s take a look at some of the best of twenty-teen décor.

Jackalope Taxidermy
As far as ironic wall-mounts go nothing quite beats a jackalope. It makes an interesting visual on its own while simultaneously mocking the half of Americans that go out and shoot wild animals and then hang them on their walls for decoration. If your other hipster décor is sparse and people don’t know what to make of your eclectic tastes, you could get some good laughs by convincing more gullible individuals that the jackalope is a real animal; after all, you’ve got its head hanging on your wall.
Guest Post: The Best of Hipster Decor
Photo Credit: Flickr

Vintage Appliances
There is something uniquely charming about an old school refrigerator from the 50s and their rounded shape with the non-regular sized or totally absent freezer compartments. It makes a great statement piece, and unlike newer refrigerators come with a bit of personality. Modern refrigerators typically come in chrome, white, and black, and that’s about it as far as your options are concerned. Older refrigerators were (and are!) available in a much larger variety of colors, and can be used to put a bright splash of color in your kitchen.
Guest Post: The Best of Hipster Decor
Photo Credit: Oh Gracie Pie

Paintings
The beauty of paintings is that while it’s preferred that you only hang up the most exclusive and obscure artists, you’re free to do just about anything you like. If you choose to ironically hang up only the most well-known and tired cliché pieces in art history, like Van Gogh’s Starry Night, you can still maintain a consistent hipster vibe by liking it ironically.
Guest Post: The Best of Hipster Decor
Photo Credit: The Bare Square

80s Video Game Consoles
Even though most hipsters typically aren’t old enough to remember the 80s they do love those nostalgic gaming consoles. Setting the Sega SG-1000 that you found at a garage sale for 4 dollars next to the iMac on your desk shows people that you have good taste. Remember to keep it hooked up to your flat screen or you’ll look like a poser, though it’s always legitimate to assert that the poser hipster crowd has ruined it by making it way too mainstream for you in the last few months, and that you’re planning on throwing it out.
Guest Post: The Best of Hipster Decor
Photo Credit: Nintendo Wikia

Record Player/Record Collection
A hipster is not a hipster without a vintage record player and a collection of low quality indie music. If you don’t enjoy indie music you can get away with listening to obscure classical musicians like Berwald, Glazunov, or Tveitt. The most important thing is that when you put on your tunes, no one but your closest co-hipsters should know what they’re listening to. Because of advancing technologies and the evolving hipster genre it’s now appropriate to use not only the hipster standard record players, but also tape decks, and even CD players. Before the decade is out it wouldn’t be terribly surprising if any physical media storage (even by USB stick) becomes a mark of hipsterdom.
Guest Post: The Best of Hipster Decor
Photo Credit: Muses of Megret

{Written by Edward Stuart}

Repurposing Canvas Art

02 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by melissaoconnor in Art & Design, Edward Stuart, Guest Posts

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

art, Canvas Art, canvasgalleryart.com, design, Edward Stuart, frames, home decor, Repurposing, Starry Night, Van Gogh, yard sales

The economy is down and our bank accounts are deflated, but that doesn’t mean we have to go without great art. The major difference is that we can’t afford supporting good artists to get it. Obviously that’s pretty harsh since we should want to promote good art, but if you can’t afford it then that’s that. Instead, here are a couple of ways to make bad art good or to find good art for cheap.

Enhancement
There are few better feelings than walking into a thrift shop and finding a great framed piece of canvas that you already have a plan for. These bargain basement values will often set you back little more than $5. I like to take the content in these frames and use that as a jumping off point, creatively. For instance, I’ve often seen framed art that has a nautical theme to it, be it an ocean landscape or maybe a lighthouse safely guiding ships in with a beacon of light. Take those boring images and use some acrylic paint to add a sea monster ravaging some fishermen, a dragon terrorizing a village, or an alien space ship hovering above the beach. The problem with a lot of this cheap art isn’t that it’s particularly “bad” so much as that it’s boring. If you’ve got the necessary painting skills (or not if that’s how you roll) you can take cheap generic stuff and make it your own.

Purposeful Ruination
This is exactly the same thing as the above category, except that it involves using prints of extremely good but overplayed pieces that just about anyone is liable to recognize like this awesome blog showing a variety of altered versions of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”.

Guest Post: Repurposing Canvas Art
Photo Credit: Popped Culture

Stencils
Yes I know, stencils are for amateurs, if you’re that awesome you can use a paintbrush. For those of us who are awful at typographical things, we will cheat. Hip boutique stores sell framed art like this for far more than it’s worth, but you’re smarter than that. You’re savvy. Take a forest landscape and stencil “Vintage Solar Cells”, or “Carbon-Emission Free Energy before it was cool” across it. If you’re not into the hipster thing, stencil something inspirational over the classic evergreens and mountain lake as a pick me up for a rainy day.

Yard Sales
This isn’t so much repurposing as it is simple reuse. If art modification makes your skin crawl then yard sales are for you. The fact is that a lot of people can’t tell the difference between good and bad art. That means some people overprice bad art, but it also means heavily underpriced good art. If you go around every weekend and look through local yard sales you will absolutely find some priceless stuff at absurdly low prices all because someone didn’t know or care that grandma was an art aficionado.

{Edward Stuart wrote this on behalf of canvasgalleryart.com.}

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