Create art for your kitchen
Published: June 20, 2005
I admit it: I bought art at the mall. An artist friend of mine literally laughed out loud when she saw my purchases hanging on my kitchen wall. She explained to me that buying generic, mass-produced art was akin to serving my guests take-out from a franchise restaurant rather than a home-made meal. After all, the kitchen is a place for creation.
Humbled, I took up the challenge of making my own art. Armed with only a digital camera and a computer (and not a teaspoon of artistic ability), I replaced my store-bought art with home-made art. By following the simple steps in this article, you too can make art that shows your taste, personality, and sense of style.
Need Inspiration? Look no further
Here are some ideas for art you can create, print, and frame on your kitchen walls:
| • | Add a splash of color to your kitchen by photographing a bundle of colorful citrus fruit or bell peppers in your favorite bowl or colander.   |
| • | Show off your love for spicy foods by photographing a series of hot peppers. Use image editing software to add the name of the pepper using a color that reflects how spicy that type of pepper is. Then apply an effect to make the photos seem more like drawings.   |
| • | Show your sense of taste by scanning labels from your favorite coffee, wine, or liquor, and then use your computer to print it as a picture. |
| • | If you look forward to that first cup of coffee every morning, take a few moments to pour some coffee beans on a dish. Then, take a picture of your coffee cup among the beans. Print your picture, and hang it with a dark brown frame and a white matte to compliment the deep color of roasted coffee beans.  |
| • | If you have a contemporary kitchen, take pictures with a single element. After your next shopping trip, take pictures of colorful edibles, like an artichoke, rhubarb leaf, or a bundle of carrots against a plain white background. You can use a large white sheet of paper or a white serving dish as the background.   |
| • | If you have a country-style kitchen, compliment the comfortable style by heading to a local farm to take some pictures. Barns, tractors, and farm animals make great country kitchen artwork, especially when matched with a hand-carved wood frame. |
Get started making kitchen art
Follow these steps to make your own unique art:
1. | Pick your subject. Head to your local supermarket or farmers' market, and pick the most colorful subjects you can find. |
2. | Photograph your subject. You don't need a photography studio to make an artistic, professional-looking picture. Instead, you can: | • | Take a picture of your subject on your kitchen counter
Your kitchen counter makes an ideal backdrop because you already know the background colors will match your kitchen. Later, you can apply effects to your picture to make it seem more abstract.
 | | • | Use a tablecloth as a backdrop
To make a picture that looks like it was taken in a studio, hang a tablecloth from a cabinet and drape it across the counter to form a cloth backdrop. You can even use your under-cabinet lighting to light the backdrop from behind.  Tip: Lighting makes all the difference! If possible, open the curtains and turn off the lights in the room so you're using natural light. If you do have to use artificial light, take several test pictures and adjust your camera's white balance setting until the color in your pictures looks right. If your flash goes off manually turn the flash off.
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3. | Copy your picture from your camera to your computer. |
4. | Add an artistic effect to your picture (optional). Open your picture using image editing software and apply a filter. If you're using Microsoft Digital Image Suite, add an effect by clicking the Effects menu, pointing to Filters, and then choosing an effect.  |
5. | Experiment with different effects to find one that will fit with your kitchen. |
6. | Print and hang your picture. You can print your picture at home using the Windows XP Photo Printing Wizard: | • | Open the folder containing the photos you want to print. | | • | Under Picture Tasks, click Print pictures. The Photo Printing Wizard starts. | | • | Be sure to choose the print size that matches the size of your frame. If you want to put the picture on your refrigerator without a frame, print it yourself on magnetic paper.   |
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 | Tony Northrup is a writer, Internet engineer, and digital photography enthusiast. Tony has a decade of experience making networks and servers connected to the Internet run smoothly. He has authored and co-authored eight books about using Windows and has written dozens of articles about Internet technologies. When he's not on his deck writing, he toys with home-automation technologies and takes pictures for display in a Web photo album. He lives in the Boston area with his wife Erica and cat Sammy. You can learn more about Tony by visiting his Web site at http://www.northrup.org.
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