Decorate by Re-purposing and Recycling

I finished a big big project last week and this is Spring Break for my hubby...so I'm taking the week off, sort of.  Still working behind the scenes with email and online listings, etc etc.  But we have other plans for the week that I will talk about later...if anything exciting happens.  So for now, I will talk about a small project that I started for my own studio.  This post I will show you the start of the project.  Later, I will show you how I used them to decorate the studio.

I often acquire things that I don't need but think that someday I may use that for something.  So I end up with a lot of stuff.  Over the last couple of months, I have been going through cabinets and closets to clean out and get rid of unused 'stuff'.  This is something that has needed to be done for awhile now. We have lived in our house for almost 17 years and you know how things just accumulate until you move? Well, we have our share of accumulated stuff.   So the urge to purge started back when I moved my studio into one of our bedrooms.  I had to get rid of things to get organized and I also want to repaint the walls in several rooms. We hope to try to sell our house someday...not sure when...but I don't want to have to purge the whole house just to move.  The thought of that sounds exhausting!

Many years ago, I was given some very old frames.  It was so long ago, I don't remember where I acquired them.  But they were frames that I thought I would use some day. Well, I have finally decided how I am going to use 3 of them.  They are going to be used in my art studio for wall display and organization.  So I thought I would share the project here, since it is going into my studio and I always love to find a way to re-purpose something.

Here is one of the very old frames, as it was before I started the project.  They had all been painted black with some gold touches.  I liked the carved details of the frames, so I want to enhance that.

I took the frames outside and laid them out onto newspaper in the grass. Then I took the white spray paint and sprayed it onto the frames.  I didn't completely cover the black paint.  I wanted it to have some depth. I also liked the way the chips in the wood and old paint started to show through.  I even have some areas that have a crackled look, that I really like.

Here are the three frames after being spray painted.

Then I took some light turquoise craft paint and lightly brushed it onto the frames, one section at a time.

Using a foam paint brush so the paint would just go over the raised parts of the frame.

Then I wiped off the excess paint.  I wanted a paint washed look. 

I used a paper towel to wipe off the extra paint.

So this is where I am now.  The frames are painted and dried. I plan to put a coat of stain to add more dimension to the frames. 

I will post a link here when I finish the project to show the final steps and see what I do with them before I  hang them on the studio wall. 

But for now, its Spring Break and I will be giving my studio a break for the week.  

Unfortunately the weather decided not to be Spring weather. 

I'll be back next week with pictures of my latest work. I have several projects to share. 

Beth  ♥