Unique Uses for Photos on Canvas

Familiarity breeds not only contempt, but rigid thinking. We’re at a point now where everyone thinks they know how photos on canvas can be used to decorate their rooms: You choose a great piece of art and hang it on the wall. Simple! Slightly more advanced designers will consider colour scheme and size, layout and position – but essentially they’re still just using photos as decoration.

There are more powerful ways to use art on your walls, however, and if you want your home and your design choices to stand out, you’ve got to think outside those boxes – the box of your room, the box of the frame, and the box of your own imagination. Here’s a few ideas to kickstart your brain and show you the possibilities.

Photos on Canvas as a Guest Book

You may have seen this used at wedding receptions – a large canvas print of the happy couple which everyone signs as they enter. When you have a party in your home, why not do the same? You can do either a new canvas for every party, which guests sign with funny or heartfelt messages as they arrive or leave, or you can use larger photos as a sort of eternal guest register, collecting the names and messages of guests over the course of years or decades, leaving behind traces of memories for you to treasure for years to come. And when you run out of space, you hang the canvas art in a place of honour … and create a new one to begin the process over again!

As a Wallpaper Alternative

Wallpaper divides people in the design world, but there’s no doubt it’s the easiest way to get patterns and designs on your walls – unless, of course you break the mould and use framed or unframed art! It’s not as crazy as it sounds. A combination of canvas sizes and some thought about colour and lines can leave you with a spectacular 3D wallpaper effect. You can choose to either take one image and blow it up to huge proportions to be divided up into various-sized pieces for a mosaic effect, or a collection of varied but thematically-linked images that form a colour and pattern story that clarifies once people see the images themselves.

Adding in Reality

For a real “pop” and literal 3D art experience, you can add real-world items to your chosen art. Start with a bespoke photo – say you want a piece of art for your kitchen, so you collect the old-school kitchen implements your Mum used in your childhood kitchen, including an ancient rolling pin. You arrange them on a white background and take a fantastic photo. When the canvas print comes in, you take the rolling pin and attach it to the photo in exactly the same position, then hang it on the wall. The combination of flat, photo-represented objects and the sudden appearance of the item emerging into reality is powerful and effective.

Now that you’re inspired – get to work! And when you have your images and ideas, click here and we’ll be your partner in crime, creating awesome art from your imagination.