Filed under: Design, etc, News & Trends
What's more intimidating than a big empty wall? The endless options of photographs, drawings, screenprints and shadowboxes out there. We're making it a little easier by zeroing in on our favorites.The best part about curated art sites: They have great taste so you don't have to. But there's something just a little more special -- and a lot more personal -- about hanging custom-for-you artwork.
Enter CanvasPop. They're set up to turn your Facebook photos, phone photos or scanned family photos into art. And when they invited me to try it for myself, I had the perfect challenge. I needed a piece to transform the back corner of my living room: A big empty wall that I've never done anything with except hang a small photo by my brilliant photographer friend Jordan Levie.
My big blank wall, before and after CanvasPop. Photos: ShelterPop
I took their generous offer as a chance to experiment with scale -- and test out how well they handle the details of a photo on a larger-than-life print. As anyone who's ever experimented with blowing up a photo on a scanner knows, images can easily appear grainy and blurry once you enlarge them. Definitely not the look I was going for.
But the site is way more prepared than I gave them credit for: A personal technician emailed me a proof of the photo I chose -- again, another Jordan Levie shot, this time a hyper-colorful, slightly-mysterious shot of a claw machine filled with candy and dollar-wrapped cigarettes. And while the resolution on the shot was big enough to survive perfectly, they have special filters they can play with to pump up a lower resolution shot, ones that even turn your photo into a comic book-style piece.
Some of my favorite pieces on CanvasPop.
When my canvas arrived, I was floored: The image is vibrant and the overall quality is incredible -- thick canvas, perfectly folded corners and it comes ready to hang. I was so obsessed with the piece I picked up an art light to give it even more attention. Doesn't the wall look so much ... happier? It also draws the eye to the back of the room as soon as you walk in, which helps make my living room look enormous.
Jealous? I've got good news: The kind people at CanvasPop want you to try the site, too. From now until the end of July, you can use the promo code ShelterPop15 to get 15% off your order (this cannot be used with any other coupon or discount). And if you're jealous of the photo, you can email Jordan.
Looking for more ideas for jazzing up a boring wall check out the rest of our Blank Canvas columns!