Decor is expensive. Just beyond expensive. Every time I walk through Urban Outfitters or CB2, I die inside just knowing it would probably cost me a whole month's salary to make my apartment fit even slightly with their vibe. That's not going to happen. Here's how I made chic decor like this.
These are the supplies I used:
scraps from old magazines (we used to get tons of free magazines sent to my sorority house, and you can find a lot of free magazines at newsstands in a lot of very bougie malls)
frames or canvases of any size (I recycled some ugly art I had gotten as a gift as well as a bulletin board that I didn't use anymore)
Mod Podge
scissors
glue stick (optional)
It's a big cut and paste project. For all of my pieces I made a background of plain text from long form articles, which I thought was especially fun considering I'm a writer and a journalist. I chose fashion spreads that matched my color scheme and outfits that inspired me. I wanted it to be more about the fashion rather than looking like a weird shrine to models, so I covered the eyes on all of the figures with a block of text.
For each canvas, I cut out columns of text to line up as the background, making sure that I used blocks of texts that were the same size for each column so that it looked more like a continuous piece rather than being choppy.
I glued down the background first. In order to get a smooth piece without bubbles, I coated each piece in a thin layer of Mod Podge and flattened it out with the edge of an expired gift card (other recommended tools are popsicle sticks or the flat edge of a plastic knife).
I was aiming for simplicity, so I only did extra detailing on the largest collage. For the circle gradient, I cut out all of the large circles individually and used a hole puncher for the smallest ones. I sketched out the basic idea, coated the whole canvas in glue, and plunked the circles into that vague pattern. Toward the end I sprinkled the smaller pieces onto the glue to avoid going insane from the tedium. You can finish off your canvas with a fine coat of glue if you want, but if you're tired of having sticky fingers, you can stop here.
My favorite thing about this accent wall is that it is 100% unique. No one will ever have an identical piece because no one else spent hours coated in glue and chopping up magazines. It looks expensive but it was virtually free. That's my kind of style.
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