A cheater’s guide to drawing your house (with no artistic abilities)

Try this simple tutorial to create a personalized line drawing of your home. It takes a few everyday supplies and no artistic ability. Promise.

Do you doubt your own artistic abilities?

You aren’t alone.

But sometimes, you have an idea that you just want to execute quickly. (Or in my case, you always have ideas that you want to execute quickly. Once an idea pops into my head, I want it done before the end of the day. No pressure.)

Such is the case with our living room wall.

I moved the pew into the “entry” and wanted to create something fun and statement-making above it. So, I started with a little “homage” to home and family. I hung the letters HOME and then plopped up a family photo. But I wanted something more.

I knew I had to start with what I have – stacks of frames waiting for a home. But I wanted to do something different than all photographs. (Our last house had a gallery wall filled with black-and-white photos of our travels.)

Years ago, my friend Allison drew a line drawing of our first home. And I adore it. But six years later, we have a few more houses under our belt. So, I decided to start with photos of our homes.

But, since I wanted something now, I decided to take the cheater approach and try to make them myself. I think they look acceptable – even with zero training. (Allison’s piece is the front right.)

This, by the way, isn’t anything I had the slightest clue how to do. I’m not an artist. I even hesitated posting this, because there are amazing artists out there who create beautiful artwork of your home. And they are wonderful.

But, if you want to do something on your own time, you can have something personal and lovely to fill your walls.

Something truly personal. But also super easy.

What do you need?

Basically, everything you need is probably already on your desk.

• A laptop computer or tablet
• Textured paper (I like to use resume paper, because I have no plans to print a resume again. I mean, do people actually print resumes?)
• Pencil
• Black ink pen
• Thin Sharpie marker

Next, you’ll need to find an image of the home you want to create. Then pull it up on the laptop screen at the size you want it to be.  (In my case, I pulled it up almost as large as the 8.5×11 inch page.)

Then, just place the paper on top of the screen. It’s hard to tell in the picture, but you can easily see the photo behind the page, which makes it a perfect “lightbox” for your tracing. You can even push the screen back so it’s flat on the table, if that’s easier.

A few tips about the image:

• Choose something with plenty of contrast. In our current home, I chose a Christmas image with lots of snow. It was more challenging to see those lines when the roof and ground was covered in white.)
• If your image is a little blurry, don’t worry. You are just tracing so it doesn’t have to be perfect.
• Remember that you don’t have to draw it all. (I neglected to draw power lines, Christmas decorations or other things that popped up in the actual image I didn’t want to memorialize on the wall.)

Now, get to work. Using a pencil, carefully trace your image onto the paper.  Don’t worry about perfection – you can always fix it or erase it. Just lightly get the basic lines and details.

 

If your paper is having trouble staying in place, try a simple piece of painter’s tape. But you can always readjust as necessary.

Within about 10 minutes, I had the basic outline pencilled in. Anyone can trace. And it’s strangely therapeutic.

Next up, use the thin Sharpie to outline those lines. This is when you may want to pull out the ruler for those long lines. Take your time and be patient. (And if you make a little mistake, move on. You’ll probably never notice when it’s all done.)

If you have any other details, fill them in with the ink pen. I used the ink pen for the  siding and smaller details that I didn’t want as dark.

Wondering what the others turned out like?

I think the left is my favorite (our second home). The barn was a little messy, but I think it works. (And if it doesn’t, it’s easy to try it again.)

Now, just a few more frames and pieces to add to the wall. Which, clearly, I would like to be finished by the end of the day.

I’m patient like that.

 

Do you want to make this project for yourself? Pin it for later.