So One More Post About Artwork For My Very Bare Walls!

While perusing Blogger-land last week I came across this inspirational picture on a post (forgive me…I don’t remember whose blog it was).

And I loved it! Not only for its very sweet message, but also because I need artwork for my walls and it matches the color of my living room. And I just happen to have this bare wall that is crying out for something to be hung on it (not unlike the rest of my walls!)

I also had a frame from the $25.00 craigslist frames that isn’t a standard size – it appears to be 8x11 ½. So I printed this off on the color laser printer I have at my desk at work, and brought it home. The size looked a little off, so I trimmed the edges of the print and backed it with some Italian Bertini paper I had lying around from Paper-Source. This made it look much better.

I know it is strange (or just plain lazy) to back my paper directly onto the backing of the frame, but in this case it worked out just fine.

Now for the frame itself, I didn’t want to leave it the awful Gold color that it was, so I decided to spray paint it using two different finishes. Both are from the Rust-Oleum line of Universals, and I went with the Metallic Silver and Brown Hammered cans.

The way I achieved the effect I was going for was to spray two coats of the silver spray paint directly onto the frame (no primer) and with only about 30 second in between the coats. It’s ok if the coats are a little thick and it is ok if the spray paint runs a little. As soon as I was done applying the silver, I immediately applied two coats of the Hammered spray paint on the still wet silver paint. This mixes the paint colors together, and since the hammered paint settles on the frame in a weird way anyways, once again drips don’t matter. I then gave the frame a good 4-5 minutes to dry a little before I applied one more thick coat of the brown hammered paint and then let it dry overnight. This gives it that sort of marbled looking finish.

I really like this finish and I did it on a couple of the frames for another project I will be completing soon (the rest of the $25.00 frame lot from craigslist). I realize that it is not for everybody, but I like that it is slightly different from the simple “flat” finish that you usually get with spray painting something.

I even really like it on this dresser/sideboard in my living room (the picture is very deceiving as the colors appear to clash here, but in person they match and complement each other beautifully), but my bare walls need it more than the sideboard does. What do you think?

And I am sorry for the poor quality of some of the photos. My 3G iPhone just doesn’t take very good pictures…so I guess it is time to upgrade to the iPhone 4. It seems like it just might be a necessity!!!

Once again, it was really great to go from this:

To This!!!

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