$5 Frame Redesign!

February 27, 2013 | by Jocie (email) |

Since repainting our living room, the walls have remained bare. Mostly because I wasn’t sure what to do, but also because art and wall decor are sooooo expensive. But then, last week, I couldn’t sleep thinking about all my current projects, and it occurred to me that I might be able to use some of the old decor in a new way. What was there to lose? Otherwise, it would all go to GoodWill, so I might as well give it a shot. After all, repurposing and spicing up old stuff on the cheap kinda rocks!

Spray Paint Talk

Once I made the decision use the old decor, I impulsively moved forward from there. I was fortunate, that last week at Lowe’s, I picked up a few cans of spray paint for the trinkets on the shelves after I painted the backs of the built-ins.

A side note about spray paint….I love Rust-Oleum. I have used Krylon in the past and it is crap. But Rust-Oleum is reliable, a great price, and always coats well.

I bought a few cans of Rust-Oleum, but couldn’t find all the colors I wanted, so I went out on a limb and bought Valspar. Normally I hate their canned paint so I was pretty skeptical.

This time, I was pleasantly surprised! The Valspar spray paint covered as well as Rust-Oleum so I had to do an extra coat or two, but it sprayed thin and even, two pretty important aspects of spray paint. It is also a hair cheaper than Rust-Oleum but not such a big cost difference that I would buy Valspar over Rust-Oleum given they offered the same colors.

I also chose to spray paint on a VERY cold day. Word to the wise: Don’t be silly like me and spray paint outside. The spray paint freezes before it hits the surface and then leaves a weird texture on the surface.

I thought, “Nah, it’s not cold enough to freeze.” False. It was.

So back inside I came. I set up a station in the basement and opened the basement door, leaving a little space heater on to keep me and the paint from freezing. Even with the ventilation (which is SUPER important), the whole house stunk! Oh well. 🙂

I ended up spraying the frame white, the matte and medallions yellow, and the backing I painted using the wall color.

Toilet Paper Roll Painting

I used this technique last fall for my DIY burlap banner, and its a pretty quick and cheap way to apply a pattern. I had first tried to make a lattice stencil with my Silhouette, but it turned out to be a disaster. So I turned to my discarded toilet paper rolls.

Seriously, it’s so easy. I put some paint on a plastic plate and dipped the end of the toilet paper roll in and then stamped it onto the paper. I used the gray paint I used for the back of the built-in shelves. It may be too much gray in the room, but what is done is done.

I first did several lines of circles, all the circles touching. (this is an example, I forgot to take a lot of pix while I was painting)

Then, I went back and put another layer of circles starting at the halfway point. It created a flowery lattice-type look.

Here is the mat of the frame I painted using gray on top of the yellow spray paint. The paint evened out a good bit once dry. I also lightly sanded it all lightly to even it all the way out.

I have also creased the toilet paper roll in half so it looks more like a leaf.

Then I pressed the toilet paper roll in groups of four to look like a flower.

Before

Here is the “before” of the frames. I bought them about 5 or 6 years ago when the dark, rich woods were in style along with the world market type embellishments. They were in such good condition and I really liked them. But once we painted, they looked very dark in the room and out-of-place.

After

Ta-Da!!! Ethan was a champ and hung them for me the next day. I am a little bummed that I didn’t incorporate more blue, or maybe even red because now I feel like it’s a lot of yellow and gray.

What do you think? Too much yellow and gray? Use or it lose it?

Thanks so much for reading along about my spray painted frames!

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