How to Turn Photos Into Paintings for Easy House Portrait Art
Adding this on to the long list of favorite ways to add fuzzy, warm sentimental feelings to walls. It’s always a good time to get a dose of fuzzy feel-goods, right?
I’d been meaning to do this little project for a couple of years and finally just got around to it… turning photos of our current house and previous house into framed paintings.
Related: The Secret to Find Free Printable Wall Art Online
How to Transform a House Photo Into Art
I learned about this app called Waterlogue a while back. So I thought I’d give it a shot.
We have a “thing” for house portraits around here since we framed my and Robert’s childhood homes beside our front door.
Related: 28 Creative DIY Wall Decor Ideas for Your Blank Walls
Related: Antique Painting Mural Wallpaper Reveal
Where to Commission an Artist for a House Portrait
We had these two pieces of our childhood homes commissioned by artists, but I thought it would be fun to find a free version to quickly convert photos I’d taken of our own houses we’ve lived in since we got married.
Apps, of course, can never replace the quality and charm of real artists’ work. So I still highly encourage you to commission one, as it is so much more special receiving a custom piece of art made by someone else’s very talented hands.
They make the absolute sweetest housewarming and wedding gifts!
Favorite Artists for Commissioned House Portraits
These are some of my favorite house portrait artists you can hire yourself.
We thought it would be sweet to frame our last house and our current house adjacent to our childhood homes in our little foyer hallway underneath our stairs.
Related: Mistakes Most People Make When Hanging Picture Frames
Related: How to Hang a Gallery Wall Perfectly Every Time
How to Make Custom House Portraits in Minutes
It was totally free to upload the photos I took into the Waterlogue app and play with the different watercolor looks until I found one I liked.
I only used the free trial version of Waterlogue. It’s hard to see at first glance, but the option is there. Set up the free trial, make your art, and then immediately cancel it after you have downloaded the art file before you’re charged for it.
Photo to Art Apps
I did some digging and found several other great apps to help you turn your photos into art. Some have oil painting effects, some watercolor, and some etchings, so play around with the different styles to find the type of medium you prefer.
They’re great for turning family photos into different art mediums too! With the rise of AI these days, it’s become so easy and the quality of some of these apps results in beautiful art pieces.
- Brushstroke
- Oilbrush: Photo to Painting
- Waterbrush: Watercolor Effects
- Graphite: Photo to Sketch
- Watercolor Effect Art Filters
- BeCasso: Photo to Painting
I snapped this photo of our house the summer of 2018 when the grass and trees were lush and green.
And I took this shot of our last house just a few weeks before we moved.
How to Print House Portraits
I often print art from MPix.com. I find they’re reasonably priced and the quality is good. For more high-end luxury art quality, I like having art printed from
Related: Where to Buy Vintage Art Online and How to Print Digital Art
Just for fun, I played around with photos of flowers I took too, and I might print them from our home printer and frame them in a few spots around our house.
Yay for cheap art! And entertainment! I’ll take anything at this point. 😉
If you want to save this post for later, you can pin it here:
More DIY Art Ideas
- 28 Creative DIY Wall Decor Ideas for Your Blank Walls
- DIY Large Scale Wall Art from a Shower Curtain
- Free Oil Painting Kitchen Art Prints
I have used this app to frame pictures of our travels …. but did you know that you can buy Watercolour paper for the printer …. it’s textured and similar to card stock and makes your print actually look as if it was painted?
That is brilliant! I didn’t even think about that!
What type of paper do you recommend printing on? Did you print at home or send somewhere? Love them!
I uploaded them to Shutterfly to have the prints mailed to me on matte paper for 11×14 size. But someone else just suggested printing on your home printer on watercolor paper to make it look like real hand-painted art.
Is there an android version of this app? The link you gave is only for apple products.
There’s not, unfortunately. But there is a similar app called Watercolor Effects on android that’s free.
I love this idea. Where are your frames from?
Thanks! They’re from Target. Here’s the link: https://rstyle.me/+SHo-ga3iy4B0PReR2o54PA
Carolyn – just fyi -there are other apps that out there that are free and easy to use – just google it and they’ll come up. Lauren, are you saying you printed these at home?? and I see they’re obviously matted when you framed them, but what size are those actual prints?
Hi Kristine! Yes, there’s an app called Watercolor Effects that is free, but I’ve found the quality not to be as good as Waterlogue and Brushstroke. I uploaded the images to Shutterfly because I wanted an 11×14 size, but you could print them from home if you wanted 8×10 or smaller. Someone suggested using watercolor paper to make them look like real hand-painted art.