thursday tip: picture frames from ugly to pretty!

the girls' walls have been bare since we moved them into big girl beds.  they took their letters off the wall months ago and i have just kept them bare.  now it is driving me nuts for about a month and i found a really cute idea at one of my favorite blogs...The Crafting Chicks...super cute ideas and step by steps over there, check it out!

i had these letters for ages...

they were just wood before i took a can of spray paint to them...love that watermelon pink color!  so fun and bright!


then i wanted to added some cute pictures of the girls...but i didn't want to spend lots of money at pottery barn on frames.  i love their frames, but for the girls' room, i wanted to stay on budget and who knows how long these will be on the wall!


so, here is my tip!  make really ugly frames pretty...and it is so easy!  i am sure a lot of you reading have done this before, but it was my first!


supplies needed:
-ugly picture frame
-spray paint & primer
-needle nose pliers
-pictures

step 1:  find ugly picture frame...i got 4 of these at JoAnn's...on sale at 60% off and i loved the square shape of them.

step 2:  take the backing off-just rip it! (the backing is off in this picture...sorry!)

step 3:  1 of 2 things...either push back the little nails or take them out all together...i took them out...much easier to spray paint without the glass in the frame!

step 4: spray paint with a coat of primer first...i was to lazy to sand them, so i did a nice coat of primer on them 

step 5: spray paint them, let dry, give them another coat until they look good!  this is the longest step by far...waiting for them to dry and spraying them again!

step 6:  print your pictures...i had to cut my down to fit in the 6x6 frame, but Costco prints 8x8...love it! 

step 7:  put back together and hang!

and here is the new artwork on their walls!  i got the idea from this blog post and loved it!

k's wall above her bed:

and m's wall above her bed:

i might add a messy flower to the big letters, just to give them something other then being wood.  but, for now i love the look and it adds so much to there room!

just a quick run down of what i did to create this look:

-spray painted all of the frame-used the same color

-spray painted all of the letters

-covered the medium size letters with scrapbook paper

-free hand painted the small letters with polka dots, because i love them!

-order the 'mara' and 'kaylin' artwork from this etsy shop!

questions about any of it, just email me.

enjoy your day...we are heading to the pool...again!