Painting Picture Frames {Giveaway!}

FLEA MARKET ART GETS A WHOLE NEW LOOK BY SIMPLY PAINTING THE PICTURE FRAMES AND MATS!

You guys, I haven’t done much this year but I did manage to make it to a couple of flea markets. And it was so good to do something kind of normal for a change! Decorating with flea market finds makes my heart happy!

With good reason! Where else can you find a gorgeous vintage print of your favorite local park for $5?! While I wasn’t crazy about the picutre frame or the red mat I knew for that price I’d figure something out.

On my second trip to the flea market I found these two smaller print. I paid only $3 for them both! For that pair I really loved the black and gold frames but not the orange mat.

How To Paint A Picture Frame

I started with the larger photo and dissembled it for painting. I liked the black frame, but not the sort of striped, weird texture of it. So I gave it a few thick coats of new shiny black paint. You can see the top portion painted in this next photo as opposed the right side that I hadn’t painted yet.

I grabbed an old brush I had around the house and set about painting the red photo mat. Right away I noticed the brush strokes which I didn’t like.

Which Brush Should You Use To Paint Picture Frames?

Before going any further I did some research and came across Zibra Brushes. I’ve heard good reviews on these, so I wanted to give them a try. This is their 3-piece Crafting paintbrush kit, that comes with a zippered pouch. Stay tuned for your chance to win this kit for yourself!

For round two, I again began by disassembling the frame. You may want to check the back of your frames before buying them to gage how difficult or easy they’ll be to take apart.

These photos had a paper backing that I had to rip off to get underneath.

I weirdly love taking old frames apart. You never know what you might find, I always think there’s going to be some type of treasure in there. Hidden money, hidden photos behind the original. Is that weird?

You can see there is a price sticker from a store in Seattle on the back of these. Apparently, they sold for $9 on clearance. No high-end fancy art score here, lol.

I pulled off the paper backing and pulled out the pins holding the cardboard and photo in.

Keeping in mind that all three of these art prints are black and muted white I did not want to paint the mats bright white, it would’ve looked off. I found an old can of my chalk paint in Old White. It’s a perfect off-white that blends well with the more vintage color of the art.

Painting Picture Frame Mats

I covered my table surface with parchment paper before beginning. The orange mats were a textured fabric, very shabby chic, so I used the fan brush on this one.

As you can see, it covered the fabric very well with no brush strokes. All you can see is the original texture of the fabric. A good quality brush is so important for a flawless finish.

This is SO much prettier than the orange, isn’t it?

For around $8 in flea market art finds, I now have a pretty, cohesive set of artwork!

Painting the picture frames and the mats is a much easier (and less expensive) way to go than trying to buy new ones. Especially considering the art you find may be in odd shapes and sizes.

Want to see that before and after again?

Paint Brush Giveaway

Zibra Brushes has offered to give one of my readers a set of their own Crafting Paintbrush Kit! For your chance to win, be sure you are following Zibra Painting on Instagram as well as The Honeycomb Home. Then just leave a comment here letting me know you’re following!

Want to find out the easiest way to hang wall art? Check out this post: The Easiest Way To Hang Pictures Ever!

Update: Giveaway closed. Congratulations to Anne N. from Kentucky!

This post was in collaboration with Zibra Painting, all opinions are my own.