DIY Canvas Prints

Family pictures.  Are they okay to have in a staged home?  That's the never ending home staging question.  The best I can do is give you my answer.  Yes.   It is okay to have family pictures in a staged home if you live there and, very importantly, if you are not losing the home (preforclosure/short sale).

I have mentioned this before but it was a while ago so I'll rehash a bit.  Family pictures are okay because people are so obsessed with reality (just think of all the reality TV shows knocking soap operas off the air).  They want to know who has lived in the house without really knowing them.  They also make people remember the home (either by pulling at heartstrings or, if the pictures are outdated, become the joke of the day -- which you don't want).

Some things you don't want are, as I mentioned in the previous paragraph, outdated pictures.  I was looking at houses this spring with a client and in one of the houses was a gigantic Glamour Shot (remember those stores at the mall?) of a woman.  It was probably taken in the early nineties.  I remember my aunt and grandma got those taken once.  They came out with huge hair and gaudy makeup (but it was super cool at the time).   Anyway, the only thing we came out of the house talking about was that picture.  Not in a good way.

You also don't want to display family pictures if you are in the process of a short sale (selling your house short of what is owed because of hardship).  When people see that a family is having a hard time, all they can do is feel sorry for the family -- not what you want when trying to sell.

Okay, now you have my opinion about family pictures in homes that are for sale.  I'm going to show you how I made our family pictures into a canvas.

Brush decoupage over the entire canvas.  This one is 16x20.

Put your picture on (by the way, I had mine printed poster size 16x20 at Walmart).

Lay it on a flat surface and put heavy things on so it sticks together.

After it dries, cut the excess photo around the edges.

I don't have a picture of the last step, but all you do is put a layer of decoupage over the top of the picture and let it dry before you hang it.

If you don't want to frame them, you can decoupage scrapbook paper to the edges like The Sassy Pepper did (pic below).

This project cost $15, which is a lot less expensive than the 16x20 canvas I ordered on sale last Christmas.

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