make a headboard and more from a photo

a

i just got back from visiting shine today and am all stoked for a cool d.i.y. project idea that was in a post about design ideas. the idea is inspired by these rooms from a beautiful hotel on the island of folegandoes in greece, the anemi. the rooms (by designer stavros papayiannis) in this hotel are really rather serene and modern in design, using white walls with grey trim in most of them. this allows for the large photo canvases (project idea) to really pop out when used as either bed headboards or large backdrops. writer, callie jenschke suggested using blowuplab.com to create this look from a blown up photograph and looking back in my library of old blueprint magazines (sniffle sniffle) i came across a few other resources as well. duggal and shutterfly to blow up your favorite photograph. (continued below).

c

here's a little how to (with some help from blueprint's may '06 issue):

1. once you have chosen your image (preferabley a digital one). if not, you'll have to take your original picture and scan it to make it into digital format. if you don't have a scanner, you can take it to a local office center such as kinko's where they can do this for you. they can put the image on a cd so you can take it to whichever printer you decide to take it to.

2. depending on the size of your original image and what type of camera the image was taken from, will depend on how large you will be able to blow up your image to. it's best to have this looked at where you will be having the image blown up at for them to assess. the one's in these images are at least 5' x 7', so your original image would need to be of pretty high quality in the pixel department.

3. for a matte canvas, ask to look at samples before you go ahead. according to my trusty old blueprint magazine, ask for heavyweight artist's canvas, pigment-based dyes, and an ultra-violet-protective coating.


b(all photo's from the anemi)

Jan Halvarson

19 comments:

beauty comma said...

This is a really cool idea. I've been thinking about doing it for a while, if it's not too expensive, that is... Thanks for the tips regarding materials, UV-protecting etc!

I'm thinking that if one wants to use own photos, and the pictures haven't got enough pixels for prints as large as these, one could opt for a collage made of several smaller-scaled prints.

Unknown said...

I want that head board.

Julie said...

Wow! What a clever idea for a headboard. If you could make a few of them (depending on cost) you could change them with the seasons. This is a fabulous idea for kids rooms as well - since their tastes change every few months!

JustAnotherDay said...

what a clever idea! Even more reason to get my first slr camera stat! I was originally thinking of doing a collage of three large prints above our bed but I am going to look into the cost of this!

Jessie Cacciola said...

this is seriously a great idea.
- Jessie -

sfgirlbybay said...

i love these big prints...gives me something to work towards with the new camera!

Michelle said...

Cheap way to do it:

http://www.blockposters.com/

of course, you get what you pay for.

Katherine said...

another good online printer is
http://www.uprinting.com. they will print your photo on canvas and include the option of a white border for mounting said photo on a frame. my print was 16" x 16" and cost $20 (including shipping), which i thought to be quite reasonable.

rc said...

what's the ballpark cost of having something like this done?

Jan Halvarson said...

oh thanks you guys - these are helpful!

Jan Halvarson said...

reilly - i've asked for a quote but haven't received one yet, but blueprint's article quoted duggal at $160 for a 24" x 36" blow up for $160 (back in '06) and shutterfly was $23 for a 20 x 30 inch wnd then prints stretched on canvas up to 24 x 36 inches at $150). so it's probably a bit higher now.

Katherine said...

don't quote me on this, but my sister ordered a larger print (again, on canvas) than i did from uprinting.com--i believe it was at least 24" x 36", if not a little bigger--and paid around $65. instant quotes are available on the website. gosh--i feel like a pushy salesperson, but i really was amazed at how inexpensive they were!

Jan Halvarson said...

thank katherine, worth checking out!

jessica said...

This is great! Thanks for the tip. I think I know just the place for a large photo like this. :)

jessica said...

katherine- u-printing seems very reasonable.

Here is another VERY reasonable place to get posters printed. I have not personally tried them yet, but have had them bookmarked for over a year! http://www.elcocolor.com/poster_special.htm

I just had this really cute idea. It would look awesome to illustrate (instead of photograph) a funky headboard and use that in place of the actual headboard. I may have to try this out. It would also be a cute spinoff to illustrate a fireplace. :)

I really need some more wallspace!

Erin Lang Norris said...

Oh this is fun! I'm no good at knowing pixel type stuff, so I'd be scared to order!

mandalei said...

Something along the same lines that I like is called "rasterbator" which allows you to rasterize an image and print it off on your own printer:
http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/
It's super cheap, as in, the cost of supplies for your printer. Perhaps not as finished-looking as these awesome images!

prettywithribbons said...

love this idea and also will look up these websites for possibilities. Thanks!

Katie said...

Love this headboard. Do you have to have an SLR camera photo or would a regular digital camera photo be too pixel-y? Any word on the best printers?