After flipping through the pages of the July Better Homes and Gardens Magazine (my favorite!), I came across this fantastic budget room redo. What really caught my eye was the artwork that the designer created. I fell in love with it. It was just the inspiration I needed and I knew exactly how I wanted to re-create it in my living room.
The bottom picture shows the room before the redo. If you look closely you can see a small picture of some pink flowers in a frame on the back corner table.
Image via BHG
He took that picture, blew it up, and put it in an oversize poster frame. The frame was $49 from Target. Here it is on the wall of the transformed room below.
Image via BHG
I absolutely love how big it is and the impact it creates. I didn’t want to spend $49 on a frame, so I looked for one at a thrift store. I found the perfect sized poster frame for just $2.00. It had a plastic front that was very scratched, so I went to my local glass shop and had them cut me a new piece of glass to fit the frame. It only cost me $11.00 and some change! Not bad, right?!
I gave the frame 2 coats of glossy black spray paint. I called a few places to find a custom matte, but they all cost more than I wanted to spend. So I decided to make my own–sort of. I took the board that was already in the frame and gave it a few coats of white spray paint. Then I adhered my picture directly on top of that. So it’s a faux matte, but you can’t tell. It looks great. I took this picture in April. I’m a sucker for tulips and took a million pictures of this patch when I found it. I ordered an 11 x 14 size print through the Costco photo center for only $2.99!! So my grand total for this thrifty art project was $16.00 I already had the spay paint, so I didn’t include that in my total. Here it is in my living room. Sorry the pictures are not the greatest. It was really hard to get a good shot with the glare of the frame and window in the day time, and with the lamp at night.
and just one more…
Here is the funny story about this. I was so excited all day while I worked on this, and couldn’t wait for my husband to get home and admire my creation. So what does he say? Well he was a little confused and said in a very nice tone: “Isn’t the frame a little big for that picture?” I just had to laugh that he couldn’t see the “art” in this piece as clearly as I did. But I absolutely love it.
So what do you guys think?
Love it! Great “knock-off”!!
cute! what color is your wall again? The 2nd to last picture it looks bluish gray – just what I”m looking for in my bathroom.
It is Martha Stewart’s driftwood gray from Home Depot. It is a soft gray but it does have just a hint of blue. I love it.
This is so impressive. A little imagination and you can turn thrifty into stunning. It looks just like your inspiration piece. Fantastic (I may have to steal this idea!)
That is great!
What kind of camera do you use? I ask because sometimes it is difficult, based on pixels, to get a pic that size without it looking “stretched” for lack of a better word.
How did you attach the picture? What sort of archival-safe tape or glue?
Thanks for the great idea!