Tuesday, May 9, 2017

DIY Golden Picture Frame

I've been putting up some of my framed prints around my house. I was happy with everything, apart from the frame of a Klimt print.

It's brown. I hate brown. I decided to spray paint it antique gold to match some other frames.
I found this print at an Op Shop for $10, so it was a bit ratty to start with.

We don't have exciting spray paint colours in Australia. We don't have antique gold (only bronze for some reason). So I used metallic gold, along with a stain to make it look older.
This also shows my grey spray primer. Both are really cheap, you can also see my primer has already been used due to the paint splatters on it.

First step: I first taped newspaper over the print. The smart way would be to remove the print from the frame. Sadly, due to this being a cheap second hand item the print was stapled into the frame and I really didn't want to bother with taking it out.
So I used some painters tape and newspaper. Be careful that the painters tape doesn't rip the print!
Also, spray outside on some plastic or something. Spray paint goes everywhere.

As you can see, I also sprayed my primer coat.

GOLD! Always believe in your soul!

I did two layers of bright gold. You can see, this it's very bright and not very antique so the next step fixes that a bit.


I used wood stain (without the varnish). I went with a dark brown, instead of black.

I used a paint brush to fill in the curves and generally paint it on. Straight after I wiped it off with a damp cloth. This allowed the gold to shine through and the stain to settle into the grooves. I think it fixes the "bright gold" problem really well.
I let the stain dry for a few days, especially because it doesn't have a top varnish.

The end product!! Remember to be careful taking off the tape and newspaper. You can see some tears and scuffs on my print (but it's second hand, so who's complaining?)
What do you think? I think it looks much better.

Here it is with my other gold frames, all from the Op Shop!

Hope you enjoyed my little DIY

3 comments:

Aji LaStrange said...

Job well done.

J.Bane said...

Antiquing with the stain was a nice touch. It looks great!

Frilly Frenchie said...

Better this way.
You have good taste!