apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

This IS a simple project- but it's one of those things you wouldn't automatically think of doing yourself. I did a similar project, and painted a bunch of antique frames glossy black to fill a blank wall (when I really couldn't afford art).

You did a very nice job- and it adds a touch of class to your modern art. Way to go!

Gold spraypaint might be a faster alternative (assuming you have an outdoor area to do they spraying).

i am doing something very similar to this. Very ornate frames sprayed glossy baby blue.

I even thought about putting it in as a small project, but I will need to spray and can't do it outside yet.

Gold Spraypaint.

super-classy! definitely adding this to my fun weekend projects list!

I just painted the frames on my cork boards pink, and I've done picture frames, and while many people said to use spray paint, if you're like me and can't hold down the little spray paint nozzle long enough, then painting them works much better. Plus, it's a stress reliever!

Wow! Very pretty and charming.

for simple, small frames like this, there's no need to bother with spray paint. you'd end up waisting a bunch on the surrounding area. hand-painting small, smooth surfaces doesn't take much time at all.

unseeneclipse, I thought I was the only one with fingers too wimpy to spray paint! I did a garden bench last summer and my whole hand was sore for a week! Frames look cool.

well done! and a lot greener than using spray paint, too.

Jmorey-- I did just that a few years ago! Trash-picked a whole stack of frames (some simple, some ornate) sprayed them baby blue and mounted them on a chocolate brown wall.

If you need INCREDIBLE spraypaint colors, google "Montana Cans". They specialize in a very broad color spectrum of high quality spraypaints and spray caps for graffiti artists. Most of their colors are matte, so cover them in a few coats of glossy Krylon lacquer and you'll get the best paint job you've ever seen.

if you want to get a little more complicated: i just gold leafed a simple ikea frame. it looks really cool, modern but luxe.

Awesome... I've been collecting frames to do this with myself. Some will be painted gold to match some antique gold ones I already have, and some will be painted black to be grouped with a black mirror on a different wall.

Does anyone think this would work well using gold leafing? Kayte, how tough was that? I have some I would love to try out but it's sounds tough, and I'm not convinced it would come out vintage-y.

p_capucine, there have been some good instructions on leafing on here and on instructables. It is supposedly not hard, but I've had leaf (faux) and size sitting on my shelf for six years. Getting started is apparently my great hurdle.