Frugal Framing Ideas: Easy Ways to Revamp Thrift Store Finds
Framing art is notoriously expensive, no matter if you’re ordering a custom frame online or picking up a standard-size one from your local store. But if you have a little imagination (and some gold leaf lying around), revamping vintage frames is an affordable way to give your art a good home. Pull out the spray paint and unroll the wrapping paper, these vintage frame refreshes will inspire you to build yet another gallery wall.
Before the Free People Blog glitzed up this mirror with gold leaf, it had a boring wooden frame that wouldn’t make us look twice. Read the how-to, then go ahead and add some glam to all your vintage finds. Get inspired by these 15 gilded projects ideas.
Food52 shows us that sometimes the only thing you need to make a thrift store frame feel fresh again is to throw away the old sun-bleached matting and turn the frame into a floating frame. Here are 12 of our favorite things to display in a glass frame.
Tanya from Dans le Lakehouse proves just how transformative a simple coat of white spray paint can be. Check out the post to see how the same trick worked on a larger painting in Tanya’s office.
A Midas touch brings a large vintage mirror back to life. Follow the instructions from Stacie Flinner, then lean your masterpiece casually against the wall.
To give an ornate mirror a playful paint-dipped look, Brooklyn Berry Designs first spray-painted one-third of the frame gold and then gave the rest a chalky coat for contrasting color and finish.
To give ugly thrift store frames a facelift, Cat from Pocketful of Posies revamped them with a two-step system. First, she spray-painted the frames, then she hand-painted the mats.
In case you haven’t noticed by now, gold makes almost every frame look a million times more glam. We can all thank Jenny from Little Green Notebook for discovering the easiest way to gild a plain frame: Pick up a gold leaf pen.
If you’d rather just buy a frame than DIY one, shop our 10 favorite sources for cheap frames.