DIY Christmas Gift: Antiqued Picture Frame

I’m always coming across picture frames at thrift stores that are perfectly good, but boring as all get out. And then I go to a fancy store and find a beautiful picture frame that my cheap ass self can’t stomach buying when there are thrift stores in this world. So the solution is to take the thrift store frame, and find a way to turn it into something beautiful.

The thrift store gods weren’t cooperating with me this time and I couldn’t find a frame that fit what I needed, so this is actually a brand new frame from Target. Cheap enough, but still boring. You need one with a wide frame so it will fit your embellishments. The embellishments you can find at any hardware store.

Glue those babies on with some wood glue, and then put something heavy on top to keep them in place. Clean up any glue that squeezes out the side because that will show up once we spray paint.

Spray paint your frame a good base color. I went for this bright chrome color, but you can use anything you want.

Here’s where the magic happens. Spray a THIN coat of cooking spray on top of your dried base coat. Then spray on your top coat, black in my case. The cooking spray will act as an extender to keep the spray paint soft enough to work with, and help blend the colors together.

With your top coat still wet, use a shop rag to sponge off most of the paint. You’ll get the black in all the crevices of the embellishments, but a dark antique mottled silver over the rest of it.

The only down side to using the cooking spray is that the paint stays tacky even when you might be ready for it to be dry. If that’s the case, spray on a clear sealer.

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