Decorating for Free: Sources for FREE Art

Don’t you love when you can decorate for FREE?  I certainly do.  Sometimes free stuff comes knocking at your door and sometimes you have to go looking for it.

Recently I was in need of some botanical artwork but I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on it.  I thought about going to used book store and seeing if I could find a discounted book that I could cut images from.  I also thought about hitting up some local thrift stores to see if I could find any quality pieces.  And then I decided to do a google search and one thing lead to another.

After searching several online shops, I took a chance and typed in free botanical art just on the off-chance that something great might pop up.  Low and behold something fabulous happened.

I discovered not one, but several great resources for free botanical art as well as art images of all kinds.

The first site I found was the NYC Digital Gallery.  The NYC Digital Gallery provides free and open access to over 800,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library’s vast collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs and more. Their collection of botanical and floral art is outstanding as are the map images.  I also liked the collection of vintage fashion drawings that would be great for a dressing room/closet area or a teen girls room.  You’ll find just about any image type you’re looking for but be prepared to send some time on this site because there are lots to look at.

To print the artwork in the size you want, save the images and then open and resize in

Another great free artworks source is Free Vintage Posters. This site is filled with colorful vintage posters in categories like travel, art, food/wine and movies.  You’ll find images that would be great to decorate a kitchen, game room or kids room.  And if you’re having a themed party this is a great place to find images that you can use as part of the party decor.

If you love using art images for craft or diy projects then you’ll want to check out The Vintage Moth.  This site provides free mixed media and collage art that’s perfect for all types of projects.  I love some of the embroidery patterns and typography lettering that could be used for stenciling or hand-lettered art projects.

Do you have a thing for fruit, especially pears?  The USDA National Argicutural Library site has over watercolor images of pears to download for free.  These images are really beautiful and would look great hung as a collection in a kitchen.

This is one of my favorite finds.   The BioDiversity Library has a large collection of  beautiful scientific flora and fauna illustrations.  There are several size options available in each image to download.

And finally if you’re in need of mag images the Osher Map Library is for you.  This site has map images of all kinds and because you can search by state, city, country etc. finding a map for a specific area is easy.

So there you have it!  I’m passing on my FREE finds to all of you because sharing feels so good.  Enjoy and stay tuned for a little DIY project I’m working involving some of this free art.