Create your own piece of street art

Street art is turning all the rules of home decorating upside down, with spectacular results. Thanks to big names like Banksy and Shepard Fairey (creator of Barack Obama’s iconic ‘Hope’ poster), this trend has moved from the street into art galleries, museums and even interiors. Here’s a quick and simple idea for injecting some vibrant street art energy into your own living space.

This is a high-impact paint effect, so it works best in small areas – we recommend using a large piece of canvas or MDF board, rather than painting directly onto the wall itself. Choose a palette of five or six complimentary colours, such as purple and blue or pink and orange, and try adding in one contrasting hue as an accent. Dulux testers are perfect for this, since you don’t need a large amount of each colour to create this look.

Create the base by using a soft brush to paint uneven blocks of your three palest colours in a camouflage style. Once this has dried, pour each paint pot into its own squeeze bottle and drip lines of paint on to your surface (put a plastic sheet down to protect the floor!). It’s best to apply one colour at a time; giving each layer plenty of time to dry between coats will help stop the colours blending into one.

Once the paint is dry, hang your artwork in a prominent space to create an exciting talking point. And the best thing about creating your artwork on canvas is that you can move it around as much as your heart’s content.