Arlington Handyman: Upcycled Thrift Store Frames

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Upcycled Thrift Store Frames

I meant to share this project last year when I made over our master bedroom, but I never got around to it. (Oops!) Since it’s time for our monthly Thrifty Style Series, I thought this was the perfect opportunity. I picked up a pair of large scale framed art prints from a hotel liquidation flea market, of all places. It was totally random and I happened to pass it on the highway and thought it sounded interesting, so I stopped in. These huge frames (they’re about 4 ft. x 4 ft.) were $9 each! They had tons of them, so I grabbed a pair of them.

See how I saved a ton of money by making over thrift store frames and reusing the mats to create my own large-scale photo wall art.

I didn’t love the art itself. It wasn’t horrible, but just not my style. I knew, however, that I could reuse the frames, and at $9 each for such huge frames with mats included, it was a steal!

First, I removed the paper on the back, and then pried the little metal prongs up so that I could remove the mat, artwork, and glass.

See how I saved a ton of money by making over thrift store frames and reusing the mats to create my own large-scale photo wall art.

Then, I sanded, primed, and painted the frame. I used some leftover gray paint that I had from another project, “Elephant Skin” by Behr.

Then, I ordered some enlarged prints of a couple of photographs I had taken of my boys in our favorite tunnel at Dragon Park in Nashville, TN. It’s one of our favorite spots, and we always try to stop there on our way up to Indiana to visit family. It’s become sort of a tradition to take photos in the tunnel each time.

Now, the frames are hanging on the wall in our master bedroom.

See how I saved a ton of money by making over thrift store frames and reusing the mats to create my own large-scale photo wall art.