DIY art projects for the home environment: create your own works that feel right in your room
Creating your own wall art at home isn't about replacing gallery walls – it's about making room for your gaze, your colors, and your pace. At Artiley, we see every day how self-created works interact with our canvases and give rooms a personal pulse. Here you'll get three projects of varying difficulty, plus pro tips on color, composition, and hanging so that your DIY art feels well-thought-out and sustainable over time.
Start with the room – not the canvas
Before you open the paint tubes: study the light, fabrics and tones of the room where your painting will hang. A simple rule of thumb is 60-30-10: let the base color of the room dominate (60%), support it with a secondary color (30%) and add an accent (10%) that your art can relate to. Stick to three to four colors in total. Test small color samples on cardboard and tape them to the wall for 24 hours – what we teach clients in the studio is that morning and evening light can make a bigger difference than the color on the tube itself.
Project 1: tactful chaos with controlled splashes
This is a playful abstraction based on layers, direction and rhythm. Think dynamic rather than random, much like in our colorful painting Chromatic Collapse , where chaos and beauty meet. Either you want to create something in the same spirit – or let it inspire you to work with movement across the canvas. Here’s how:
- Prime the canvas with a thin neutral tone (e.g. warm gray or light beige). Let dry.
- Choose three main colors and one accent. Limitation gives control – it’s our most common pro tip in the studio.
- Build directions: draw diagonals with putty knife, create sweeps with a wide brush, and add splashes with a toothbrush for atomized spray.
- Work in 2-3 layers and let at least 20% of the canvas breathe. The void is your best composition partner.
Want to see how a finished piece can carry this energy into a home? Here is 
– Chromatic Collapse shows how contrasts in rhythm, color and surface create focus without feeling cluttered.
Project 2: texture in neutral tones
Texture creates calm and depth – perfect in Scandinavian environments. Mix acrylic with modeling paste or use a thin layer of acrylic joint compound. Spread with a putty knife in soft, horizontal strokes. When the surface is dry, apply a thin layer of glaze (diluted paint) in warm greige or sand tones. Let the highest points be lighter and the deep grooves slightly darker. The result is a sense of craftsmanship that plays nicely with natural textiles and wood.
Pro tip: work with a semi-matte sheen. Full matte + full matte can be flat, while a faint sheen refracts the light and highlights the relief.
Project 3: minimalist horizon
A surefire choice for a bedroom, hallway or dining room. Tape a soft horizon line across the canvas. Paint the sky in two adjacent tones (e.g. misty blue and pearl grey) and let them meet in a deliberate transition. Underneath the line, add a warm neutral (linen beige or light taupe). With a dry, wide brush, sweep over the seam for a misty meeting. It gives the same serenity as many of our calm landscape-inspired canvas prints, but in a super simple execution.
Color matching and placement that makes a difference
- Scale: Above a sofa or bed – aim for a painting that is about two-thirds the width of the piece of furniture. Multiple smaller works? Think of them as a single rectangle.
- Height: in the middle of the motif around 145–150 cm above the floor provides a harmonious eye line.
- Paired hanging: two works at the same height and with 6–8 cm between them feels airy but cohesive.
- Lighting: warmer light (2700–3000 K) makes neutral works softer, while cooler (4000 K) enhances blue and green tones.
Experience from the wall: what separates amateur from professional feeling?
After hundreds of hangings at customers' houses, we see three recurring things: 1) series beat solitaires - paint two or three variations and choose the best one, 2) leave breaks - unprocessed surfaces give the work breathing space, 3) restrained accents - a small shock of color in the right corner can be stronger than an entire canvas in an accent color.
When DIY meets finished wall art
Combining your own art with selected wall art makes the whole richer. Let a DIY piece provide texture and a finished piece add direction or color mood. Want more drama? Explore how Chromatic Collapse uses movement to balance expression. For a seasonal mood, you can also read our guide Winter Inspiration: Paintings that create a warm and inviting atmosphere and translate the ideas into your own warm winter colors.
Practical details: materials and environment
- Substrate: stretcher frame/canvas, painting knife, wide brush, masking tape, modeling paste/acrylic joint compound (for texture), acrylic paints.
- Protection: cover floors, ventilate when spraying/splashing, and always test paint a small area first.
- Framing: a thin floater frame elevates both DIY and canvas paintings without becoming dominant.
The most important thing? Be curious but disciplined. Limit colors, work in layers, and take a step back between each phase – that's how works grow that feel natural in the home.