DIY Pantone Posters

The mission was simple – find a large piece of artwork to fit over my sofa. Easy right? Well this simple task has taken over two months to complete. Finding the right piece of wall art has become the bane of my existence. Like seriously, I cannot even begin to explain the amount of hideous wall art there is out there. It’s either way too generic, or so overdone. I mean who really buys those faux Picaso’s anyway? Disgruntled and exhausted from looking, I decided I needed to go the DIY route.

I originally thought I’d paint something myself, but lets face it, I’m not super artistic. My one attempt at an abstract painting was a complete fail, so I knew I had to scratch that. My second thought was to find an image I really liked and blow it up. I’ve always been attracted to blocks of color in a room. It makes it that much easier to get everything to mesh together, and give a cohesive look without much work. My work bestie, Jillian (her site is still in the works, don’t judge) suggested I take a look at her set of Pantone postcards for inspiration. They were simple enough, with a touch of whimsy, clean and modern. They were perfect and simple enough to be art themselves.

I stopped into my local print shop and they scanned the postcards into the computer. By the time they had enlarged the little 5 x 7 postcard to practically poster size the image was so distorted, I knew immediately I’d have to come up with a new plan.

I was super frustrated but decided not to give up. I mean, how hard could it be to make essentially a large paint chip with some simple text below it? Very easy actually. With the help of my Photoshop savy co-worker, we whipped up three prints large enough that the image had no chance of becoming distorted.

Before sending the images off to print, I first hunted for the right frame. I figured since I was getting the print sized to whatever specs I wanted, it was easier to find a good frame and then work from that. But frames are expensive! So I headed to the Ikea in Brooklyn in search for an inexpensive frame. I found the Ribba Frame which was large enough that three frames next to each other would hang over my couch perfectly, and at a great price of only $20 each. Once I had my dimensions, it was time to send the images off to the printing press.

It’s history from there folks. I’ve got three super original pieces of artwork to adorn my living room and serve as the perfect building ground for color throughout the rest of the apartment. I’m totally in love.

Lucky for you, I’m a good sharer and have uploaded the PDF files to MediaFire for your downloading pleasure so you can make your own! It’s real simple, here’s what you need to do.

- Download the PDF files here:
- Freesia
- Swedish Blue
- Tigerlily
- Buy 3 Ribba Frames in white (their faux walnut color could be cute too)
- Put the images on a disc and bring them to your local print shop.
- Dimensions of the print are: 20 1/2″ x 28 1/4″
- Paper quality: matte photo paper
- Pick up your prints, and pop them in the frames.
- Comment and tell me how obsessed with these you are.

Related posts: