25 Frames: Spray Painting Cheap Frames for a Unified Picture Wall

I’ve decided that I want a picture wall.

You know, the walls with a ridiculous amount of different sized frames all squished together? When I first started seeing these on the internet I strongly disliked them… I thought they looked so messy. Obviously now I have changed my mind :). Then I saw an example done by Young House Love {^above} and a few others that took a more organized approach and I  started to rethink the idea.

Here is where I want to put it {in our living room above the couch}. Right now there is just a small piece of art, which I love, but which is also a bit small for the space.

I heard a rumor that you could get a variety of frames at the dollar tree {for $1 if that wasn’t obvious}, and sure enough they had tons of options! And to think I was dropping $5-10+ dollars a frame at Target?? I chose 25 assorted frames for just $26.75 after tax!

My next step was to spray paint any frames that weren’t already black – there’s no way I could have had them all different colors! It was a little annoying getting all the glass panes out.. these frames have metal prongs around the boarder holding it in. Once I did however, I realized the prongs were perfect for holding the frames off the ground for painting.. woohoo! I used Krylon fusion in Black Satin – I LOVE the finish it gave them.

A word to the wise: follow the instructions on the can! {I learned the importance of wiping these down with Mineral Spirits & spraying at a distance of 8″ or more.}

This is what happens when you don’t wipe it down first & spray to close! It was fine after a second coat. Luckily this was my first and only frame I messed up so terribly 🙂

 

Also the can recommended it be 50 degrees or more.. it was like 45 and I did have to go back over a couple of them… I ended up using the whole can! They turned out great though so I’m not complaining.

 I brought them in after a couple hours and laid them out on our table. This shows some of the variety in textures…

 

The frames will be completely set after 7 days {they are fine to handle after 1 hour, just not 100% scratch proof or whatever happens while they set up} so I’ll let them set for a week. Can’t wait to find some images for these babies!

Kate Alyse

Kate Alyse

Kate is a proud mama to six amazing little sweeties {through birth + adoption} and wife to the best husband a girl could ask for! She considers herself blessed to be able to stay home with the kids, and is just starting to get into the world of homeschooling. In her "spare-time" she enjoys sharing many of the projects, stories, and gluten-free recipes that are a part of their every day lives!
  • Cool, that's a good idea to just paint all your mismatched frames to unify them. I'm excited to see how those frames look up on the wall 🙂 Don't worry about the one mess up, and kudos to you for being brave enough to show the mistakes you make 🙂 Spray paint is difficult at first!

    ~Lisha

  • lol, Shannon! that's one reason to get married… 😉

  • lol – yeah for some reason I had it in my head that  knew what I was doing and just went with it… and then I learned!

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