Back in the fall, I was scouring thrift stores for some
décor to use in our still underway guestroom makeover. On a visit to The Salvation Army, I stumbled
across a set of three prints, all in custom wood frames. The prints were not bad – they were all
agricultural or country themed, and since this room is inspired by my
grandfather’s home in Nova Scotia I decided they could work. Each print was on sale for $4.99, but I had a
coupon for a discount from a previous donation so I ended up purchasing them for
$3.00 each. Not bad.
Although the prints looked decent, the mattes in each were a
very dark green and the frames looked dated and worn from age. It was time for a makeover.
The first order of business was to carefully remove the
frame backing, cardboard, mattes, prints, and glass. Next up, I painted the mattes white using
Rustoleum White paint. Simple. Easy.
The frames were a bit trickier, and reminded me of my
love-hate relationship with Rustoleum.
Rustoleum is awesome and can transform just about anything which is why
I love it. I hate it because it really
only work best when the weather is such that you can use it outdoors (ie. sunny,
still days of a moderate temperature). Initially
I tried to spray paint these frames.
Fail. Even though it was done
indoors, it was in a cooler part of our house and due to the cold temperature I
ended up getting all kinds of bubbles in the paint. In addition, the fumes went through the whole
house and made me feel ill. This was the
reminder that I should only use Rustoleum on the aforementioned days. But all was not lost…
I sanded down the frames, primed them with Para Primer and
then painted them (by hand, no spray) my current favourite shade of grey, St.
Boniface, using Para furniture paint.
A quick coat of Windex to clean up the glass, and a very
tedious and careful reassembly of the ensemble and ……voilà…..a fantastic set of
custom framed prints at a bargain price.
Thank you Salvation Army!!
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