One obsession I have is art. I don't know why I have this desire, but I think it would be so awesome to own pieces of original art in my home. Of course, I don't have the budget to do so, so to make due, I use what I have and try to update them to make them look awesome.
Last week I started to work on fixing a print I was given by parents when I was eight. At the time, I thought it was the dumbest Christmas gift ever! But now, I think it's cool my parents did that and thought it would be a fun tradition to do with Amelia each year, so when she grows up she'll have a small collection of beautiful art to decorate her home. The print is called Abide with Me from the artist Rebecca Hartvigsen. It's a picture of the Salt Lake City temple and the Lion House. It means a lot to me because that was where McKay and I were married six years ago and I looked at this picture everyday on my bedroom wall while I was growing up.
As you can tell, the pastel color of this mat and the cheapo frame was really dating this picture back to the early 1990's. I went to Hobby Lobby to get an idea of how much it was going to cost to get a new mat and frame for this picture and it was OUTRAGEOUS! Even with a 60% off coupon, it was going to cost around $150!!! That wasn't going to fit in my small budget for this room.
A stupor of thought came into my mind and I thought how I could paint the mat. I went through my acrylic paints and found the perfect color! It was meant to be! The best part was I got this paint for $2.15 a few years back! The paint color is called Blue Violet.
I unscrewed the frame and carefully peeled the masking tape that was holding the print to the mat.
I used a foam brush and brushed on the paint in long strokes so there wasn't streaks. I painted one coat and let it dry for a couple of hours.
I'm really happy with how it turned out! The paint job makes the frame look so much better! Here it is hanging up in my living room. I have some other cheap art redo's I'm planning on doing with some of the existing art that I have.
I love that painting. I would have never thought to paint a mat before. Great idea!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kathleen! It was so easy and saved me a lot of money. I think I'm going to try to go this route with all of my art and pictures in my house.
Deletegood stuff made by using good adhesive glue which might have make this stuff much easier... Thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteTry a local framer next time. A mat change out at a local framer is typically less that $50.00 for a new mat and change out. Hobby Lobby and Michael's jack up their prices in order to offer "discounts" when in reality they aren't discounting anything. Local framers also do all jobs on premises, whereas Hobby Lobby and Michael's send them out.
ReplyDeleteMichaels only sends for the mats and frames to be shipped in store. All of our framing takes place on site, and the art doesn't go anywhere. Yeah, for a new frame, archival mats, and UV protectant glass, this would definitely be $150 worth of work, but you also need to find a framer that is willing to work with your budget. If you only needed a new mat, something this size would indeed only be 50 bucks or less. This method is fine for pieces that don't have much value, but I don't recommend it for original art or signed and numbered prints. At least the paint used here is a better acrylic and not spray paint (ack). Spray paint is awful to have right next to art that is actually worth something.
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