Decorate Your Home with Acrylic Pour Art

• Real Estate Tips
• art, decorate, paint
• September 3, 2020

Framed artwork or canvas paintings can easily personalize your space and make your bare walls intriguing. But art can be expensive and depending on your taste, you may have a hard time finding exactly what you want.

If you love the look of abstract art and want your home to be awash in color, then consider decorating your home with acrylic pour art!   

Making acrylic pour art is fun, messy, and therapeutic. Art therapy has been proven to improve mental health by reducing stress and improving self-esteem!

Getting Your Supplies Ready

You will need the following supplies to create acrylic pour art:

• Canvas (wood panels, stretched canvas panels, or primed canvas panels)
• Liquid or Soft Body Acrylic Paint (at least 2 colors)
• Plastic beverage cups and/or Plastic Squeeze Bottles
• Wooden Craft Sticks (if using plastic cups)
• Aluminum Baking Pans
• Painting Tarp
• Gloves
• Apron

Optional Supplies

• Gesso and Flat Paintbrush (if using canvas panels)
• Pouring Medium (if you use craft acrylic paint)
• 100% Silicone Oil (if you want “cells” in your painting)
• Palette Knife
• Color Wheel

Setting Up Your Art Station

Choose where you want to set up and cover the surface with the painting tarp. Place your aluminum pan on the table and use a plastic cup or any flat, tall object to suspend the canvas above the aluminum pan. This allows the acrylic paint to pour over.

If you chose to use craft acrylic paint, you will need to use a pouring medium to liquify the paint. You can do this by using a ready-made pouring medium such as Golden GAC 800 or making your own. By combining Elmer’s glue with distilled water in a 1:1 ratio, you can easily make your own pouring medium. Fill some plastic cups or squeeze bottles with your pouring medium.

You can add the paint directly to the pouring medium or mix the substances separately using another plastic cup or squeeze bottle. The paint and pouring medium should roughly be a 1:1 ratio, but this can vary depending on the pouring medium you choose. The consistency should be like buttermilk, so keep adding the pouring medium until you get the right consistency.

If you bought canvas panels, you need to prime the canvas with gesso. Gesso is an acrylic primer that will help your paint adhere to the canvas. Cover your canvas in gesso using a flat paintbrush or even a sponge brush.

Making Acrylic Pour Art

When it comes to art, there are no rules! Acrylic pour may sound simple, but there are nearly limitless ways for you to personalize your art. The easiest and most straightforward approach is to simply pour your paint onto the canvas.

Once your paint is on the canvas, you can move the paint around by tilting the canvas this way and that. Though you can’t completely control how the paint will look, you can guide it to move in the direction you want.

For an interesting visual effect, you can add 100% silicone oil to your paint mixture to create the look of cells. The mixture will change the chemistry of the paint and help create the look of abstract art.

Once your art is done and the canvas is completely dry, you can decorate your home with acrylic pour art by using hooks or mounting tape! Your bare walls will now look interesting and personalized to your taste!