Picture frames

I seem to have an enormous penchant for picture frames, especially groups of matching ones. Perhaps because it is the first step to adding art to walls but that does not require imagination. You see, I am not very artsy at all, and lacking interest on the walls is a common theme throughout the house. But I came across a group of five matching picture frames at a thrift store (I always seem to find groups of five, not an ideal number. I would love to one day find a group of eight or at least six to hang above the sofa like this). These frames have a nice simple clean design, not too obstrusive. But someone had slapped on a streaky coat of white paint over the original gold without even bothering to take the glass out. They looked pretty bad, but nothing that a little paint stripper and razor blade can't fix. So I got to work. First I had to carefully pry out the painted over glass which cleaned up nicely with a razor blade and Windex. Then I started to  strip...use paint stripper? (...such an unfortunate connotation with the word strip.)

We had this really powerful toxic eat-through-your-skin-and-clothes stripper from a previous disastrous project when we tried to strip a powder-coated baker's rack...needless to say, that did not work and the unfortunate baker's rack is no longer with us.

After the frames were stripped and scraped and sanded I totally let them sit around forever because I was too lazy to paint them left them to thoroughly dry so they would be ready for paint.

I applied 2 coats of this paint in Lagoon. I really like the color.

Before they were painted I tried and tried to come up with an arrangement to use five frames. This one is very boring...but yes, I used it before in our dining room

This one looks like jack-o-lanturn teeth.

This one looks like a weird butterfly.

I had some help with this arrangement and well as artwork suggestion.



Here is a pin-wheel arrangement.

And finally here is an asymmetrical arrangement.

Yeah, I didn't really like any of them so I broke up the set and just used four.

I framed some bird prints that I cut out of a thrift store book. Hmm, I should really try to get a better picture without the glare. Maybe later.