Freetivity

Sometimes thrifty treasures aren't found at a sale or a store. Sometimes they are found at the dumpster. Now I'm not talking a dirty trash dumpster. In my case I'm referring to the place in our condo garage where people put their recycling and "I don't want this anymore" stuff.

I posted awhile ago about some shelves I found in that spot- shelves that retail for a minimum of around $70.00. My price because I'm willing to recycle: FREE. We'll call it freecycling.

A couple weeks ago I was headed to work when I saw something else that looked like a good freecycle item. It caught my eye because it was a large frame and looked like it was good quality- even if the print was far from my style. When I stopped to check it out, the sturdy, quality nature of the frame was confirmed and I quickly put it in my trunk.

I figured out that the frame was a good size for over the bed in the master and started brainstorming about what kind of art I wanted to use in the frame, already knowing that the frame itself was definitely going from gold to white. This is where freetivity comes in- I had to be creative about what to do with a free item to make it work.

Here's the before:

The start of the process was of course painting the frame white, which involved taping off and newspapering the glass. Next came the white spray paint- a couple coats for good coverage.

About halfway to complete we have a white frame with the original matting and artwork.

I pulled off the backing and removed the art and matting. I decided to keep the wide blue mat because we have other frames with blue mats in the bedroom already.

It's hard to see, but above the thin matting at the center was yellow. Fortunately that mat was separate from the blue, so I just flipped the yellow around to be white (seen below).

The next step was the art. I began by painting the back of the orginal art the color of our master bathroom, which is just a shade darker than the bedroom color.
Next I penciled in the design I had decided on.

Then I filled in the pencil lines with white pant. This was orginially supposed to be trees connecting in the center with a heart- kind of showing two families coming together- but I think it looks more like coral, which is fine because I love coral as a design element.

Here it is framed and hung, also known as the "After" shot:

It always takes me a bit of time to get used to something new on the wall, like in this photo I think it looks too small. But in person it looks great and I'm really glad to have a unique piece that I made using my creative brain and my own two hands.This post is for Southern Hospitality's Thrifty Treasures. Check out her site for links to more cool and thrifty finds!

Blessings and Happy Monday!