Vintage Audubon Prints on a Budget

Decorating our "new" home has been a work in progress. Most of the upstairs remains undone. It took me an entire year to get to our living room, which is painted but is still missing a few final touches (including the hardwood floor that still needs to be refinished). It took me eleven months to completely remove the wallpaper from a kitchen wall, patch, and paint it. I really want to share updates on these home improvements with you all! But most of the projects take so long that pictures of the process are hiding in over 6000 pictures. Finding them all is a daunting task, to say the least. This post is one that was salvaged from the archives.

For 8 years we rented houses; each time we moved I tried to get the painting and decorating done as soon as possible. That way the house would feel like home as quickly as possible. At times painting rental houses seemed like throwing away precious energy, but it helped engender a sense of stewardship for the house, if not ownership. My goal was to leave every house better than when we arrived.

I'd often used the same pictures and arrangements in the same exact settings from house to house to save time. The same hydrangea print hung over a little white shelf with a candle in the bathrooms of our last three houses. Familiar arrangements helped dispel the feelings of homesickness and homelessness I felt from moving so often. (In the 3 years from 2008 when we lost our first home, to 2011 when we found the little gray house, we moved four times. I was pregnant during three of those moves.) Recycling wall arrangements and colors also took a lot of thought out of the decorating process. 

When we moved here I finally felt like I could take my time and think about what I wanted on each wall. I really wanted to change up some of the overused decor, so I left a lot of things in boxes. When the basement flooded and some of my home decor was destroyed (including the hydrangea picture that I was actually quite fond of) I realized I needed to find a budget friendly way to redecorate.

For a long time I've wanted a series of botanical or bird prints, so I started trolling different sites for a set that fit our space (and budget). I was shocked at how expensive they were! Once I found a set that seemed reasonably priced, but soon discovered they were just the prints without the frames. My hopes began to fade....

It was then that I remembered I had this 1950's copy of Audubon's "Birds of America"...

....and a color scanner/copier! It wasn't high quality, but it would work for what I wanted.

Since my collection of frames did not include four matching 8x10" frames in decent shape, I bought these from Wal-Mart.

The frames were the only thing I spent money on, so the grand total for this set of four bird prints was an affordable $35.92!