Project Week: Custom Frame Refurb

The project I had intended to show you next is taking a bit longer than I expected. Hopefully I will finish it today though and can show you tomorrow. Take my word for it that it's fab.u.lous. though!

You may remember from this post a while back that my mom gave me this great piece of art she had sitting around in her barn.

I just love this piece. I had planned to reframe and mat it but after some quick measurements I realized it was custom framed, so that was out. 

After some brainstorming I came up with a plan to refurbish it that cost a whopping $6!

First I took it all apart and cleaned it up. It was disgusting! I decided the simplest thing to do was cover the outside mat in fabric. This is the only money I spent!

The fabric I bought was very light in color and thin so of course the darker mat showed through. So I whipped out some white spray paint and sprayed it down.

I didn't have to worry about it looking good because it was just to lighten the color.

I had planned to keep the inside mat as is because I thought it was dark gray. But when I took it apart I realized it was actually green that had faded quite a bit.

No worries there though. I sprayed it with some metallic silver spray paint I had lying around. Only a sliver of it will show so I didn't worry about it looking perfect either.

Then I oiled down the frame with Old English Polish. It made a HUGE difference in the appearance. I had originally thought to paint the frame but decided I'd rather keep the wood tone for some texture in the room.

I meticulously covered the mat in fabric with a ton of double stick tape, put it all back together and ta da!

It's hard to tell in this picture but the new matting is actually a very light pink. Combined with silver I think it looks amazing and unexpected!

Here is a side by side for comparison...

 Sooo much better! I can't wait to hang it on my art wall!