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February 19, 2016 by Bre

How to Find FREE Patents for DIY Art

As part of my son’s Vintage Airplane Bedroom Makeover last spring, I printed out some patent drawings for various airplane-related things and hung them on the wall over his bunk beds.  They were a perfect industrial touch for his bedroom, and the best part is that they were FREE!  Patent illustrations of any invention make amazing frame fillers, so I thought it would be fun to share with you how to find free patents for DIY art of your own!  This vintage airplane bedroom is filled with easy and budget-friendly DIY details that will grow with the little boy who lives here!

Guys, it seriously is the easiest thing!

First up, go to Google Patents and enter the subject matter you’re looking for into the search box.  In this example, we’ll use “airplane.”It's so easy to find free patents to make DIY art! This tutorial gives you a step-by-step guide on how to search for, and find, exactly the patents you're looking for!
Once Google has brought back all of the patent documents that relate to your subject matter, you can set some search limitations on the left-hand side of your screen.  You can see that I limited the time period to those patents that were published before 1940.  That’s because I was going for a vintage look.

You may also want to limit your results to the country from which the patent originates (“Patent Office” field), the language of the patent (“Language” field), and/or the status of the patent, specifically whether it’s been already granted as opposed to only in the application phase of issuance (“Filing Status” field).It's so easy to find free patents to make DIY art! This tutorial gives you a step-by-step guide on how to search for, and find, exactly the patents you're looking for!

After you’ve browsed through the search results, decide which ones you’d like to use as art and download the PDF on the right-hand side of your screen. It is seriously THAT easy! Can you believe it? It's so easy to find free patents to make DIY art! This tutorial gives you a step-by-step guide on how to search for, and find, exactly the patents you're looking for!

I displayed mine on flat canvases because they’re right next to a bunk bed, but you could display yours any way you like!  In frames, blown up as large-scale art, decoupaged onto canvases – the possibilities are endless!  This vintage airplane bedroom is filled with easy and budget-friendly DIY details that will grow with the little boy who lives here!

So what do you think?  Will you be searching for patents to use as DIY art anytime soon?  If so, I’d love for you to pin this post to Pinterest so you can remember to come back for this tutorial later!  It's so easy to find free patents to make DIY art! This tutorial gives you a step-by-step guide on how to search for, and find, exactly the patents you're looking for!

Happy searching!

-Bre

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Comments

  1. Leigh Anne says

    February 19, 2016 at 7:29 am

    I had no idea it was this simple!! Thanks for the tip Bre!!

    Reply
    • Bre says

      February 19, 2016 at 8:07 pm

      I know, right? SO easy! Thanks for stopping by, Leigh Anne!

  2. Amy | Canary Street Crafts says

    February 25, 2016 at 7:04 am

    This is awesome! I had no clue Google Patents was even a thing. Thanks for the great tip!

    Reply
    • Bre says

      February 29, 2016 at 8:35 pm

      Thanks, Amy! I am sure you can find a million uses for vintage patent drawings, so I hope this helps in some way!

  3. Micah says

    November 19, 2019 at 8:08 pm

    Great write up! I just wanted to comment on the use of Google patent search. It can be hard to find what you’re looking for because the search is still keyword based, and patents often use technical language instead of every day words and phrases (i.e. a patent for a Trumpet might be just be called a “horn instrument” in the patent filing).

    I run a website selling patent prints called Patent Earth and so far we’ve got about 1,400 unique patent designs, extensively categorized and listed with every day terminology. If you’re looking for more patent ideas you should check it out! It will definitely save some time compared to Google’s patent search. Of course we offer prints for sale, but you can use our catalog to find ideas for your own DIY prints. I won’t mind 🙂

    I realize this post is from 2016, but I wanted to chime in for the benefit of others that stumble onto it. Hope it helps!

    Reply
    • Bre says

      January 20, 2020 at 9:33 pm

      Hi, Micah – very cool! Best of luck to you on your website!

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Hi, I'm Bre! I believe in working with what you've got to create a home you love. I hope to inspire you to do the same!

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