Fun with Chalk Paint – Inexpensive Goodwill Picture Frame Makeovers


DIY / Thursday, January 29th, 2015

goodwill frame makeovers

We’ve lived in this house for over a year, but our walls are still mostly bare – due to a mixture of laziness, budget and not finding the ‘perfect’ frames. To get exactly what I wanted, for less, I decided to chalk paint two old picture frames.

A few months back I bought two old frames at Goodwill. The shape and details were great but they were beat up and not my choice of colors. I scored them for a whopping $4.

Here are the original frames:

Frame2

Frame1

The plan was to give these frames a makeover and use them to display photographs of our kids. A little chalk paint, sanding and waxing and they cleaned up nicely in a couple of hours.

I like how even though both frames are painted with the same color and style, the original frame color showing through in the distressed areas makes each frame unique.

Frame1 painted

Frame2 painted

I roughly estimated the blue frame as a standard 11×14″ size in the store. However, once I tried to put a new 11×14″ mat into it, I discovered the opening was actually 11×15″. Whoops.

Not wanting to make or buy a custom mat, I used some decorative tape I had on hand ($1 section at Target) to make a border all the way around.

tape border

With chalk paint and wax, a little goes a long way. I had plenty of black chalk paint leftover from the DIY Outdoor Vertical Stencil-Painted ‘Believe’ and ‘Grateful’ Sign, and wax and brushes leftover from the Updated Framed Mirror. I spent $4 on the two frames, $1 on tape, and $2 on the pre-cut 11×14 mat. That makes two framed photos for $7. Worth it!

Frame 1 finished Frame 2 finished

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