Check out the thrift stores in your area, resale shops and those big junked-up "antiques" malls.

It takes a bit of patience, but you can find some amazing stuff for cheap to inexpensive.

If you find some frames you like, with crap art, buy it and give the art back. Then find something worth framing.

Super cheap usually screams super cheap. People have found very expensive treasures at thrift stores. There's always the swap meets and garage sales. A lot of work, I know.

Are you talented at all? You could take some art classes locally and do your own thing. If I were you, I'd buy some large box canvases. These do not need frames. I'd then get some acrylic paint and cover the canvases with one of your desired colors, using the other colors in an abstract design with a palette knife. I know that's hard to imagine. You would only need white, yellow, crimson red, and a true blue. Use the color wheel to help you mix the colors you want.

red + white = pink

red + yellow = orange

red + blue = purple

purple + yellow = brown

Sort of fun to mix the colors, and an abstract goes with anything. Have you ever seen pictures in the clouds? Same thing.

My first thought was to DIY it too. You might be able to find some art nouveau stencils to help you out. Something like this would be fairly easy to freehand and you could chose the colors.
There's plenty more ideas here.

I have purchased several items from greatbigcanvas.com. You can get prints or canvas, different sizes, framed or unframed. You can search by color, style, etc. Like most people I can't afford original art, at least not for the whole house, and I don't have the patience to be constantly combing thrift and antique stores.

I did a large-scale (4x3) DIY painiting for my office. I am ambivalent about it--on the one hand, I am a no-talent hack and it's just not great art. On the other hand, the price was right (cost of the canvas and paints), it brightens up the office, and serves the purpose of keeping visitors from looking at a blank wall.

Original art doesn't have to mean big budget. I have a number of pieces in my house that I got from a local art center for disabled adults, including a 30x20" acrylic painting of tropical fish. I have other pieces painted by friends much more artistic than I (some gifts, some purchased, but since they are hobbyists, the price was right). I have a painting my brother did in high school for art class that was at my mom's house until she moved last year.

Don't do it yourself. If you have a pretty toile, chinoiserie room, one assumes that professional artists designed the fabric or wallpaper and there's no way your own efforts can match the level of quality you have already established. Museums frequently have rental departments; universities have student exhibits; I've seen art for sale in upscale hair salons, in banks and art festivals. Start looking and you'll find something painted with at least a level of craft that you will like. You have to spend something, but you'll find something priced to match your budget. My two cents.

www.txtlart.com is my go to for large wall pieces. That being said just about everything else is from a thrift store.

bookmarking, until I can be home this weekend and can use some good ambient lighting for photography. I'll show you my just-about-favorite print -- I did have to pay a bit more than I wanted for framing, but really not all that much more, considering. It will also pay for you to go to flea markets, if you want ideas off of a beaten path.

I'm an artist, but display few of my own works. I love vintage prints, but one of my favorite framed pieces is a lovely nature shot I took and had blown up as a very large photograph on canvas- at Costco. $50-75 dollars or so. People always comment favorably about it and are shocked when I tell them it's a photo I took. I would personally live with a blank wall before settling for filler. As far as getting a better feel for what you like, start a photo folder on your computer or whatever and do what people are recommended to do when trying to figure out their taste or style in decorating: just keep saving examples - in your case of art works - which speak to you. Later, when you've accumulated quite a few, go back and start observing the commonalities.

Look for art shows in your area...you may be able to find something from a local artist that sings to you without costing an arm and a leg. Of course, the same is not true for the framing which typically does cost an arm and a leg.

I haven't done it myself, but I have heard about people buying books of botanical prints and framing the individual pages. Maybe a grid design of several of them in the dining room?

Another look I think is neat is a framed collection of those arty calendars. Below is a link to one example, but I have seen several others (Linnea is one). My SIL has two months framed in her kitchen, and changes them when she needs to. Another friend has the entire year framed separately in inexpensive frames in a grid over her kitchen table. Everyone compliments her on it.

https://www.abacusgallery.com/store/calendars/product/2015_abacus_calendar/

I love original art and have collected a lot over the years. Wall art doesn't have to be expensive, but you are right in that you need to start by narrowing down what you like.

For instance do you like framed art behind glass, like water colors, or do you prefer oils or acrylics? Or perhaps you prefer objects like metal wall hangings, ceramics or textiles. I recently saw three inexpensive metal wall hangings clustered together to form one large piece. Beautiful and ridiculously cheap to do.

When it comes to framed art work I learned long ago doing it inexpensively works best if you find the frame first and then add the art. A frame can come from anywhere, remove what's in it and add what you like. A good place to get a large attractive frame is Big Lots, or Ikea,especially if you need a mat as well as the frame. Also thrift stores and yard sales. A can of spray paint can make the frame any color you want. When it comes to what to put in it almost anything can become wall art, children's paintings, posters, wall paper, blown up photos, blue prints, maps, fabric. postcards. If you need to fill more space you can make smaller items more important by increasing the size of the mat that surrounds the subject and framing them larger. If there is an art school two find out if they have a students art sale; museum stores often have posters of original art from shows they have curated that unless you are a real art buff you are unlikely to have seen .

I agree on antique malls. Our local antique mall has some nice art pieces. We have a couple of pieces we got from there.

Is there something like a monthly gallery crawl where you live?

Estate sales--another place we've found art we liked.

I would wait to find something I liked.

I'm reminded of the remodeling saying, good, fast, cheap. You can have two out of three. I think it generally applies to art as well. If you want good and cheap, you have to be willing to invest the time to find it.