Next up in the dining room project tutorials...
I had a very old (and not particularly special) oil painting that I got for half a Euro at a flea market in Brussels. I thought it would look nice in my dining room because it's mostly neutral, but has a little pop of orange-red. It really needed a frame though, and since European canvases are not the same size as American standard sizes (and it's old, I think before there were standard sizes), I knew I would have to get a custom frame.
These two options from Michael's were along the lines of what I wanted - small and somewhat understated. Guess how much though, even with a 60% off sale? $175 each. For just a little bit of moulding! Custom framing is crazy expensive.
I saved myself all that cash by picking up a set of these framing slats on that same trip to Michael's. There are several finishes to choose from and then it's just a matter of buying the correct length and width slats for the painting. With my coupon, the frame was $10 total.
I stopped by Home Depot on the way home and picked up an 8-foot length of decorative moulding for $5. I liked the rope moulding (below) a lot and it worked well for this project because it was the exact width as my Michael's frame.
When I got home I assembled the frame according to the package directions, with a little bit of wood glue. While that dried, I laid out my moulding on top of the frame and marked the corners off. {Note: I probably could have used a miter box here, but I'm lazy and knew I was going to fill the corners}
Then I just used my very favorite $7 coping saw and easily made the corner cuts. I used wood glue to attach the pieces to the frame front and then filled in the gaps in the corners with wood filler.
Once everything was dry, I spray painted the new frame with Krylon's Grecian Stone spray paint. I was going to gold leaf the frame, but I ended up really liking the gray in the room. The frame is not museum-quality, but it was only $15.
Next project! Who doesn't love a good gourd lamp? I found this one at TJ Maxx on major clearance for $4.50. I think it was so cheap because the brand is Amy Coe, which I'm pretty sure is a nursery line? Yeah, so were not talking about a
Christopher Spitzmiller lamp here, but I thought the shape was pretty.
First, after taping off the cord, I spray painted only the base gold.
After letting that completely dry, I taped off the gold and spray painted the body of the lamp a nice peacock blue color from Sherwin Williams' clearance aisle. Unfortunately the color is much less teal in actuality, and more of a true blue, but I think it's fine in the dining room.
I finished off the lamp with a few coats of Wipe On Poly in the gloss finish, to really shine the lamp up.
The last project to share today was really simple. I reupholstered the drop seat of this little side chair with some leaf green linen that was pretty, but a little boring as it was.
So I taped off stripes with some frog tape and spray painted the seat (a la
Eddie Ross) with the same blue that I used on the lamp
.
I think the stripes are a fun pop of pattern in the room! And they don't look spray-painted on, even up close.
I'm off to do some fabric shopping with my mom and sister, who are in town visiting for the week. Hope you're having a great Tuesday!
And in case your feeling crafty and inspired she has more photos and the step by step instructions here.
From the home of the very talented and very lovely Lauren of Pure Style Home. P.S. that amazing faint spring green wallpaper, is not actually wallpaper. It was done with stencils. See how Lauren and her husband got the look here.
