Saturday, April 5, 2014

Art Gallery DIY

Two kiddos are in art lessons once a week.  They have been bringing home masterpieces that they've created so we needed somewhere to display them.  I wanted to make framed spots to hang the artwork, but it needed to be easily changed because they keep making new ones. 

I collected several frames of different sizes and shapes.  I wanted the finishes to be eclectic and mismatched, so I had an eye out all over town for second-hand framed art that was not too expensive.  The project stayed at a stand-still at this point for months because I had a few but not enough, so until I found just the right number of just the right frames, I was stuck waiting.  Finally Kent nagged me to get moving on it (maybe he was tired of my stacks of materials cluttering up our house) so I went looking for more... and found the perfect addition to my project!  Hooray, now I was ready to begin. 

Next I had to decide what medium to put inside the frames.  My choices were bulletin board (they sell cork by the roll at Staples) with maybe some fabric to pretty it up; or sheet metal cut to fit.  Again Kent stepped in and voted for the metal because he has some tin snips and it would be easy enough to cut it to shape.  Ok, we were on our way! 
Freshly painted frames

I took the innards out of each frame and spray-painted them all the same almond colour.  After a few coats, they looked like new!  I used the discarded backings to trace the shapes I needed onto the metal and Kent loaned me his snips to cut them out. 

Cutting the sheet metal
My mom loaned me some dark gold finishing paint, and I rubbed it into the grooves of the frames, then wiped it off to give a distressed, antique look. 

Antiquing the finish
I painted the metal pieces with a light brown and light blue.  Unfortunately the brown colour didn't come out the way it looked on the strip, so it was more of a tan and too similar to the frame colour.  But I was impatient and left it anyway.   Once everything was cured, I put the metal into the frames, re-backed them, and was ready to go.   After only nagging Kent a dozen times or so, we finally got around to hanging them on our dining room wall.  Now I can use magnets (I bought some supermagnets at Home Hardware) to tack up the artwork, and I can change it as often as we want! 

Finished Art Gallery wall!
I'm really proud of how it turned out, and the kiddos are pleased that their works are admired by everyone who comes to our home. 



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