DIY Embellished Picture Frames

I got my inspiration for this easy DIY from Courtney over at A Thoughtful Place, but she got her inspiration for this project from House Beautiful... it all trickles down folks!

I have jumped wholeheartedly on the "gold" bandwagon, but realize that it's best used in moderation... it takes serious self restraint from taking a can of gold spray paint, gold leaf, and gold leaf pen (yes, they make a pen my friends) to everything in sight.  I'm in the process of revamping our currently gold framed gallery wall to something a bit more simple (I think)... but I digress...

Back to my little gold edged frames...

Our entryway has had an empty wall ever since I moved out the ornate Ikea mirror into our hallway... I'd been looking for a larger federal mirror, but having put myself back on a budget after a few shopping sprees, and a splurge on new bedding and the dresser DIY for our bedroom, I've decided to hold off on a pretty federal mirror for now.

The question of what to hang in this spot plagued me for a while, and then I spotted these frames in Courtney's living room, and decided to give it a go...

Super cute right??

Courtney ended up spraying tape, cutting it down to size, and then CAREFULLY wrapping it around the corners of each frame.

I took the lazy approach and taped off the corners of the frame, eyeballing about an inch and a half on each side (nope, didn't even measure), and then with a craft brush and a small pot of Martha Stewart's gold leaf paint, just dabbed each corner until it was completely covered with gorgeous texture.

Voila!!

I took the tape off the frame after the second coat went on, and the paint was still wet - it just helped get clean lines on the frame.

So... this DIY is actually just a glorified painted frame!  It was so easy - I literally finished both of these in about 10 minutes, and the paint dries fast - maybe 5 minutes until it's fully dry?

There are a few small mistakes where the paint bled under the tape, but it's fine - really from a distance, you don't notice it at all.

The entryway is really simple, but in such a small space, we figure simple is better than overdone.

Look at that crisp edge... I absolutely LOVE them!

The pretty photographs were from one of my all time favorite Etsy shops, Eye Poetry Photography.  The photographs are really dreamy and pretty, and they have a San Francisco series that I absolutely adore!

I'm not normally a HUGE fan of photographs of city landmarks (the Golden Gate Bridge or Eiffel Tower is SO overdone) but the Ferry Building is so classic, and less photographed, and I just loved the photo of the bridge at dusk - it's not the in-your-face red towers we're so used to seeing...

So that's it - the entry way got a small face-lift this week, these old frames got re-purposed, and everyone wins!

Happy Thursday!!