Here is a quick and easy method for transforming the look of a framed picture without having to remove the art.
If you don’t have a Habitat ReStore in your area, you are missing out! I bought this awesome Monet print – The Basin at Argenteuil – at my local ReStore for $10 a couple years ago. I loved the beautiful colors and the nice heavy frame.
Fast forward, I still love the picture but the frame doesn’t go in my new living room. Black Dog Salvage Furniture Paint to the rescue!
This paint was designed with a super high adhesion rate and the ability to stick to a variety of surfaces, including those that traditional chalk-style paints cannot. It goes on glass, metal, wood, ceramics, over old paint, varnish or lacquer. So it was a perfect choice for this picture frame that had a kind of slick surface.
TAPE & PAINT
First I taped off the inner edges of the frame with masking tape. Next I brushed on one coat of Galvanized– a nice smoky gray that went on like silk!
PEARL EFFECTS
After the gray dried, I wanted to accentuate the lines of the frame and give the color some variation. I love the light pearlescent shimmer that General Finishes Pearl Effects give to a project, so I used two colors to get the look I wanted. Lightly dipping my brush into the glaze then dabbing it on a shop cloth saves your project from blobs of color. I alternated Bronze Pearl Effects and Argentine Pearl Effects until I was happy with the result.
Normally I would add a topcoat at this step but since this will be hanging on a wall and not handled, it wasn’t necessary.
REMOVE TAPE & HANG IT UP!
Pulling off the masking tape made cleanup super easy and I didn’t have to scrape paint off the glass.
The picture with its fresh, updated color looks perfect in its new spot.
That’s all it takes to change up a frame in no time!
Do you have a picture you love, but you don't love the frame? Use any of the Black Dog Salvage Furniture Paint colors as a base then give a shimmer with General Finishes Pearl Effects for a stunning transformation.
We hope you'll be inspired!