How to Make Inexpensive LEGO Wall Art for A Boy’s Room

Ok, ok. I know what you’re thinking. I don’t normally do decorating projects – I usually leave that kind of thing up to Jess. But this one involved  Lego’s! I’m not sure it even counts as decorating. This was a fun project that we were able to get our son involved in and we completed it without any sophisticated software or equipment for under $7!

Lately, we’ve been working on our oldest son’s room. We wanted to personalize it with his interests without going over-the-top “kiddy”. In other words, do something we could all live with. He loves Lego’s, so we wanted to incorporate that interest into his room somehow. We finally came up with some Lego wall art that was an easy DIY project and allowed him to get involved in the project too. The best part about this project is that anyone can do it and customize it with your little guy’s or girl’s favorite Lego mini-figures.

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Contents

Step 1 – Play with Legos, errr… Get the Pictures

We started by picking out a few of his favorite mini-figures and posed them on a simple backdrop. The backdrop was simply a sheet of white printer paper taped in place to provide a continuous white background. It was a cloudy, gloomy day so we set it in a window sill to capture as much natural light as possible.

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I took quite a few pictures at close range (about 4-5″) with my iPhone. I kept 5 of the best shots, which you can see below.

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Step 2 – Photo Editing

Before downloading them from my phone, I converted the images to black and white then messed around with the contrast and a few other settings until the background was completely white.

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Once I downloaded them from my phone, I used GIMP (a free graphics software similar to Photoshop) to create a 24″ x 54″ montage of the black and white images. I am not a GIMP expert, so I kind of fumbled my way through. The general steps I followed are below. There are a lot of excellent  tutorials out on the web to help you with each one, so I won’t cover them in detail.

  • Create a new 24″ x 54″ (or whatever size you prefer) image with a white background
  • Import each of the black-and-white mini-figure images as new layers
  • Delete (make transparent) the white area around the mini-figures
  • Arrange each of the layers as desired to create the collage
  • Crop the collage into three 18″ x 24″ images
  • Export each 18″x24″ image to a .png file

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Step 3 – Engineering Prints

After I had exported the .png files, I ordered engineering prints of the images at Staples. Each of the prints cost $1.99 and they were ready for pickup in a couple of days. This type of print is meant to be used for line drawings, so it’s not as nice as a full-color poster print. But it’s a whole lot cheaper and just fine for black and white images such as these that are viewed at a distance anyway.

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Step 4 – Frame

Rather than buying poster frames at $12-20 a piece, I chose to make some simple poster frames from pre-primed MDF that cost less than $4 each. I taped the prints to poster board, then stapled the poster board to the frames. To prevent scratches to the walls, I placed a small piece of masking tape over each of the staples.

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The Final Product

This project turned out so cool and was a lot of fun to do. I really like how we were able to incorporate our son’s  favorite mini-figures into the prints. And the black and white prints kind of make it look like – dare I say it – “art”?

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Free Download

You can easily make your own customized Lego wall art using the steps I outlined above. However, if you would rather just use these prints in your project, we’ve included a link to download our prints below. Just download the images, upload to Staples (or your preferred printing place) for printing, frame, and enjoy.

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Well, that’s it. I hope you enjoy this project as much as I did. If you did, don’t forget to Pin it so that you can come back to it later. Thanks so much!

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