The Secret to Find Free Printable Wall Art Online
Not to be dramatic, but the day I discovered free printable wall art in the public domain changed my life. (Okay, yeah, maybe that’s a little dramatic.) But I do completely believe art has super powers.
Art sets the mood for a room. Art is an expression of human experience. It can make a space feel elegant or eclectic or colorful or moody or whatever feeling you want it to have. And it wasn’t until about 4 years ago that I discovered I could have all of the art I wanted for FREE!
Granted, yes, I still had to print that said art, but I’ll totally swing a couple bucks in printer paper and ink versus a couple hundred buying art from the store. (Artists totally deserve clients who will pay them for their art, but art in the public domain is an excellent option for homeowners who can’t afford the “real deal”.)
Once I discovered art in the public domain and took the time to scour archives, clean up the images in Photoshop, and format them for print around our home, I started sharing them as free printable wall art as an affordable option for homeowners everywhere and have kept the Bless’er House Printable Library going ever since.
What is the public domain?
Public domain art isn’t protected by copyright law, so you can legally print, sell, or distribute them as much as you want. Usually works enter the public domain because…
- The copyright date has expired. In the United States, a work’s copyright expires 70 years after the death of its creator.
- The work doesn’t have a copyright notice prior to March 1, 1989.
- The U.S. federal government produced the work.
Can you sell public domain art?
Yes! Which is why it could be a great income stream if you’ve ever thought about opening an Etsy shop selling digital products.
It takes some time to curate the art to find beautiful images in high resolution, but if you have the patience to search through public domain archives and the ability to clean up the image quality in Photoshop, you can sell digital copies of public domain art for people to buy and print art in their homes.
Shopify and Society6 are popular sites for digital art sellers too.
How can bloggers use public domain art?
I’ve sourced art from the public domain for years to create a free printable wall art gallery just for my email subscribers. It’s a great way to build a community, have an email opt-in, and provide a thank you to blog readers. You could sell printable art on your blog, but I prefer to provide it for free.
Can artists manipulate existing public domain art?
Yep! Say you find an old children’s book cover art image that you want to paint or add your own medium. You can manipulate that art in your own style and then sell it.
Okay, since all of those commonly asked questions about public domain art is out of the way…
The Best Online Sources to Get Free Printable Wall Art
- The Met Collection
- Wikimedia Commons
- National Gallery of Art
- Raw Pixel
- Smithsonian Open Access
- John J. Audubon’s Birds of America
- Public Domain Review
- Old Book Illustrations
- The British Library
- Art Institute of Chicago
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Harvard Art Museums
- The Getty
- Library of Congress
- National Gallery of Art
- New York Public Library
- Yale University Art Gallery
- Picryl
How do I print my free printable wall art?
Sometimes if I’m in a rush, I just print art from my home office printer and put it right in a frame to hang on my wall, but ink can be expensive and sometimes it’s just easier to order prints from an online printer (still cheaper than if you would have paid for store-bought art).
Plus, if you want art printed larger than 8×10, a home printer won’t cut it. Some printers online allow you to print oversized art by ordering it as a blueprint (some places have restrictions on that so ask ahead of time).
- Office Depot
- Staples
- Overnight Prints
- Shutterfly
- Vista Print
- Giclee Today
- Mpix
If you want to see all of the art I’ve shared here on the blog over the years, you can see all of the Bless’er House free printable art archives here.
And if you want access to the Bless’er House Printable Library, just click here or the button below to subscribe and have the password sent to you.
(If you’re already a subscriber, click here to visit the Bless’er House Printable Library using the password at the bottom of my email newsletters.)
Have you ever looked through public domain archives for art before? It’s kind of addictive really. There are so many hidden gems with rich history to be discovered just begging to be framed on a wall somewhere.
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7 Sites for Public Domain Art & Photos
September 22 2020
Hanging new artwork on a bare wall is a great feeling, but it can be a challenge to find something you like enough to frame that’s also within budget.
Enter this useful list of online resources we’ve put together for free, high-resolution images available for download and your custom framing pleasure.
1. Audubon’s Birds of America
John James Audubon’s Birds of America was printed between 1827 and 1838, featuring over 400 prints based on the artist’s original watercolor paintings.
The National Audubon Society has recently made every single one of these iconic illustrations available to download for free in high resolution (with a newsletter signup).
Find your favorite, and then upload the file to us for printing and framing.
Ruby-throated Humming Bird framed in our Academie Gold 3/4″ profile
2. Space Images from NASA
This one might be a little out there, but there’s at least a little space nerd inside all of us. Indulge your inner astrophile with NASA’s incredible trove of images covering everything from moon landing to earth rising.
“Moon Landing” and “Earth Rising” custom framed in our Black Maple profile
If you’re more into stylized and colorful posters, NASA’s JPL has published a stunning set of space travel posters.
Choose your favorite planet to print and custom frame so that you can space out anytime.
3. The New York Public Library
If you’re looking to immortalize a piece of New York history or one of the treasures collected by this great institution, the NYPL has built a living database of prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts and more, with new images added every day.
Some of our favorite finds are old maps of the city that take us back in time, like the one below, and this collection of historic photos from around the United States.
Custom framed map and woodblock print from the NYPL
Note that you can choose between a Matte paper with a flat, texturized finish with little to no glare, or our Lustre paper which is slightly glossy with a subtle, pearl-like texture. Read more on how we make sure your photos are printed to look their best before we handcraft the frame to fit.
4. Google Patents
If you find the ins-and-outs of history’s most iconic inventions of interest, take some time to pore through this search engine for patents.
Framing these drawings is a unique way to add some technical flair to any wall. They make great conversation pieces as well.
If you’re not in the mood to go hunting through the archives, we’ve curated something of a greatest hits list in our Iconic Patents Collection featuring world changing inventions such as a watch for dogs, the Rubik’s Cube and this concept from famed inventor (and guitar wizard) Edward L. Van Halen:
Musical Instrument Support patent issued to Edward L. Van Halen in 1987. Available in the custom frame of your choice.
5. Vintage Travel Posters
The Library of Congress is a remarkable repository of our nation’s history and culture. One particular collection they’ve curated and made available as free, high-res downloads is this group of frameable vintage travel posters.
The Library of Congress has a pretty extensive collection of downloadable maps as well.
6. Unsplash
Unsplash is a source of freely useable images, crowdsourced from talented photographers across the world.
One of the best things about Unsplash is that the images are available in incredibly high resolution, meaning you can print and custom frame these photos as big as you like (within limitations of course; check out our guide to framing oversize photos and art for more details).
image credit: Glen Carrie
They also have a great search feature and curated collections that cover themes like architecture photos, travel photos, fashion photos, nature photos and much more.
image credits: Simone Hutsch and Eberhard Grossgasteiger
7. Public Domain Images Curated by Rawpixel
What is public domain? It’s a term used to categorize works of art or literature that were either created before copyright existed, or have been around long enough that the copyright has expired. In other words, you are free to use them however you like!
Rawpixel has curated a brilliant set of public domain images and offers a very high-resolution image file for each.
The Great Wave off Kanagawa (remix) by Katsushika Hokusai, custom framed in our Nickel profile
Adorn your walls with some of the greatest art ever produced with these masterpieces from artists like Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Gustav Klimt, Katsushika Hokusai, Paul Gauguin, Vermeer and many others.
Not only are all of these sites fun to browse, they’re a first step towards filling your walls with framed artwork that suits your style without breaking the bank.
Once you’ve chosen your top picks and downloaded the images, see how custom framing online can help you get them up on your wall in a week or less.
Whether it’s a centuries old masterpiece, limited-edition print, kids artwork or your own photos, Level Frames can help you custom frame it online. Join today for exclusive rewards.
