That's how I felt when we first moved in to our new apartment. I decided to take it bit by bit and slowly have each room perfect, just the way I like it. Right now, I'm on a budget... but I'm surviving.. finding cheap ways to DIM! (that's do it myself) LOL.
I decided to go with the lovely layered frame for the big empty wall above our couch. Yup, that's exactly what I wanted, it will look perfect there, I think it will really complete that wall.
Okay, first things first... Get the frames! I had some old frames laying around, that got me to 5. But they were all little to medium sized and I wanted more. I was thinking about 9 or 10, yup that would do the trick. So I got in touch with my hubby's Mom and asked her if she had any big old frames kicking around. YIKES!!! She did!! She said she had quite a few to come on over and take what I liked. I ended up taking 3. I was getting there. Headed to the Dollarama and completed my set! I wanted to try to get frames with a lot of detail, not all just plain. All in all, I spent $2.50 at Dollarama on the frames and about $3 in gas to get to the parents in law!... So far, so good!
Now that I have all the frames, I wanted to decide on a layout. I spread them all out on the floor and started rearranging. Putting that one there and this one here until FINALLY I decided.... THIS IS IT! I took a few pictures (as shown below) so I would remember what frame went where for when it was time to put this masterpiece on the wall.
Next step is to sand or prime the frames. Whichever you prefer. It doesn't matter which way you go.
I decided to sand all of my frames because they were all wood and had to smooth them up anyway, so thought I would skip the priming all together.
Once ALL the sanding or priming is complete it's time to paint!!! Yup my FAVOURITE part!!
I'm sure by now you already have some sort of idea as to what colours you are going to pick for your frames... but if you don't... now is the time to start thinking about that! I had some blues and silver left, so I'll use that! But I wanted 1 more colour... I was going to go with black, but decided on brown instead (it goes with my couch much better)!
Oh.. and just so you know, picking colours wasn't as easy as it sounds, really, it's not.
So, I started to work. So happy that the weather was beautiful for a couple days! It was perfect, 21! Not too hot, not too cold! So I went out on the balcony to catch some sun while I was at it! I decided not to spray paint the frames and just do them by hand. I didn't have the colour of spray paint I wanted and I sure as heck wasn't going to buy any seeing as I already had paint here. But if you would prefer to spray them! It will work great either way! Probably a little more quick if you spray paint them.
I did 2 coats of paint to each frame and they were complete... but they still weren't looking the sharpest... so I threw on a glaze varnish to give the frames a nice glossy finish.
I was SO excited, finally, they are painted. Now to let them dry. The varnish said fast drying, but I let them dry over night anyway, I didn't want any tacknyness getting in my way! I used a brush on varnish as well, but I have used the spray in the past and I honestly like the Clear Coat spray a little better than the brush... (One thing I would have done different is used the spray). So I layed them all out for the night and went to bed.
Well, it's the next day.. and I'm super pumped for today! Today is the day we finally get to place the frames. I set them back up the exact way I wanted them to go by looking at the picture I took before.... just needed to make sure they still looked good and I still wanted them on the wall that way! With a few small adjustments, it was ready to go!!
One by one we hung all of the pictures that go directly on the wall up! So only the top layered frames were left. As shown in the picture below.
We thought we were going to have trouble placing the top layered frames, but it really wasn't as big as deal as we thought it was going to be!
I used 3 different sizes of nails depending on the thickness of the frames and the location of them. The smallest nails were used for the layer that goes directly on the wall. I then used the bigger nails to place the top layered frames. Some frames were thicker than others, causing me to have to use 3" nails. As shown in the picture below, I had to use the biggest nail to so the top frame would hang properly.
Finally, we were down to the last frame!! OMG, so exciting to have this done!!! I placed it after hammering in the nail and tilted it on the right angle and BAM, it was complete!!!!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!! And so does the hubby, which makes me happy if he's happy! (hahahahahahaha, for those of you that know me, you are all laughing like I am, LOL)
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