Art Party Decoration Ideas * Moms and Crafters

I’ve shared my favorite art birthday party activities, and now I’m excited to continue that birthday party with these art party decoration ideas! This post contains affiliate links.

I love throwing affordable and doable birthday parties for my kids, and for that reason, I often do a lot of themed parties. I try for those where I can DIY the theme as much as possible, or those with easy dollar store decorations, but sometimes a kid wants a party that is just such a good idea – but I need to do or buy a little more than I’d like.

When Y asked for an art themed birthday party for his eighth, it was just such a good idea! M had asked for a dog man birthday party for the same, and while that was super cool too, I was a bit over all these characters…and it lent itself to such good activities.

It’s also unusual to see a boy ask for an art themed party, it’s more of a girl theme, for no good reason, so I was happy to be able to meet this challenge and throw more diverse art party ideas into the world.

And yes, it lent itself to some fabulous activities. But for the art party decoration ideas, I did have to be a bit more creative. And since I was on a serious time crunch on the prep end of things, I had to just go ahead and buy things.

This actually might be the last “real” party he’s had, where he invites his whole class for a bit themed bash. It was so overwhelming (though it was quite a success) that I decided that I might be getting too old to keep entertaining large classes of young boys.

I started making an offer to my kids: they can choose from a large class-wide party in the house (like this was) or a day off of school with me! Yes, I spend a whole day with them. Y just celebrated his 9th birthday (I’m late writing this) and chose the day off. We went to the Lego store to choose his birthday gift, went out for Sushi, went thrift shop hopping, and went to the grocery together so that he can pick out snacks for a small at-home celebration (unthemed) with family.

It was really nice. So birthday parties definitely have their place, especially for younger kids, but we’re phasing them out for the older set – unless they choose otherwise!

Art Party Table Decoration Ideas

My first thing to do with every party is to choose a color scheme. I usually like to keep the palette relatively simple (like I did for baby J’s neutral first birthday party and Y’s 7th video game party). Withthis I totally failed, and in part because I didn’t DIY it all.

It’s therefore not quite picture perfect. I’m sharing anyway, because I might as well share valuable feedback, better strategy, and what you can do to make it better.

In addition, because we had a crawler in the house, I outlawed the usual balloons that set the scene.

My best birthday party decorating tip: pick up some balloon ribbon, balloons in the simple color scheme of your party, and a hand pump and you’ll create a cheerful party spirit on a budget, filling the space with the decor.

Instead, to set the art party theme, I set the table initially with a “spilling paint bucket”. This is done by taking a small garbage pail (or specially purchase an empty paint can) and some colored tablecloths spread out to look like paint in primary colors.

This created a really cool effect that filled the space on the table.

I used coordinating primary color tableware – plastic cups, flatware, etc. but then I went ahead and purchased adorable paint palette plates!

This already broke from the simple color scheme. I also realized quite quickly that I needed some more decor to take the place of balloons…

The hanging decorations

I could have gone with streamers, I could have gotten a mylar balloon banner, but no, I had to complicate things further…. So I went ahead and purchased from Amazon a paint party decorating pack in completely the wrong colors…

Now, had I started with that, I would have matched the table stuff to it, but I didn’t…

Anyway, it was fun and easy, and allowed me to fill the room a bit, with minimal effort. Just don’t ask how long it took us to take those decorations off our light fixture…

More art party decoration ideas around the house

Again, I have more art party decoration ideas to share from around the house, that you might do better to coordinate and stick with a great color scheme.

Just because my overall look wasn’t perfect, doesn’t mean the ideas themselves weren’t great.

Paint Splatters All Over

One cool idea that I partially implemented and could have done fully for a cooler effect was to cut paint splatters (using a Cricut or by hand) out of removable vinyl. I put some on the floor right where kids entered and they were fooled by it for a second.

You can do this all over – on walls, etc. But just make sure to test it first to make sure it’ll come off nicely.