Saturday, September 29, 2012

Gettin' Crafty

Because if there's one thing my readership (Abby) wants to read about, it's home decor projects.

Every year my family has a white elephant gift exchange. Last year I won a set of 4 picture frames from my Aunt T. I say "won" because some of my family members take the exchange as an excuse to get rid of literal garbage, instead of stuff that's random but usable. It is absolutely possible to lose at this gift exchange. So even though these frames weren't really my style, I consider this a win. Better than that time I ended up with a handful of original Playstation games (not even good ones, not that I have a PS1 anyway) or a box of men's work gloves.

So I had the frames sitting around in my closet for about six months until I finally found a use for them. I installed a couple of little shelves in the awkward space above my TV (it's only about 4 feet wide and I have to work around the thermostat), and I broke out two of the picture frames to set on the shelves.


Those two swirly frames are the ones I'm talking about. Although that might have been kind of obvious since they're clearly the only two frames that came from the same set. Sorry for the shitty pic. It was taken on my cell phone just to send to my mom, I never intended to use it on the internets. But I didn't think to take a "before" picture, so it'll have to do.

Here's what I don't like about these frames: A) The color. The off-whitey beige color just doesn't stand out very well against the white wall. But I could live with the beige if it wasn't for B) the "shabby chic" paint job. I am definitely not a fan of shabby chic. I don't like chipped paint or rust. When I won them in the gift exchange I was all "I can paint them a different color!" But I never got around to it. 

Until today!

I had a really good grad school-related morning, which put me in the mood to get shit done. I guess I could have "gotten shit done" in the sense of cleaning up my messy apartment or finishing homework but that's boring and doesn't involve a trip to the store. I debated for a bit as to what color I would paint the frames. I considered doing a fun, bright color, but couldn't settle on a shade. Finally I decided to just do silver. If I decide later that I want a fun color instead, I can repaint these or paint the other set. 

I'm writing this now as the back of the frames dry. So far, so good.


I didn't realize until I looked at this photo that I totally spray painted over my cousin's picture in the paper. She's in that Garrett Smith ad. Oops.

The Results

I clearly didn't think this through.


Don't get me wrong, I definitely like the frames a million times more spray-painted silver. The problem? Painting them silver didn't really fix my "blending in with the wall" problem. In my mind, when I was picturing the end result, I was imagining them more of a pewter or gunmetal color. Obviously the frames didn't end up pewter, because I didn't buy pewter paint. I bought silver paint. And when the silver paint reflects the light in the room the frames totally blend in with the white wall.

I'm not gonna repaint these guys because I do think they look much prettier in silver. And in my next place I'll be able to paint the walls so these guys will stand out more. Imagine the silver frames against a dark blue or teal wall.

Coming soon: this shit gets dealt with.