The last time I had an animal head on my wall was when I lived in Dallas. I brought back the skull of a steer that I had bought at a flea market in Santa Fe while I was visiting my sister. My apartment at the time was very white and modern with splashes of color coming from gorgeous over-dyed, hand-made kilim rugs and large Georgia O’Keeffe prints. It was probably one of O’Keeffe’s paintings of an animal skull that inspired me to buy it. The skull immediately found a spot in the living room and he was adorned with a faux red rose that I tied around his horns.

I lost the skull during a breakup with a guy (I kept the rugs) and I kinda missed having him around (the skull not the guy). I’ve been seeing a lot of faux animal head decor in interior design magazines and I love how whimsical they are! I found one in a home goods store that was painted silver, but I knew I could transform it with a little spray paint into something more in keeping with my studio office. If you want something similar, but are not in a DIY frame of mind you can purchase it here.

Here is the Georgia O’Keeffe painting that I had a print of.

When I was finished spraying his head, I waited until the paint was completely dry and covered the head with plastic to prevent the gold paint from getting on the white paint.I was in “spray-painting” mode so I took an inexpensive black IKEA frame and sprayed it gold to frame a “LOVE” print.