Five Dollar Art for the Yellow and Gray Bedroom

The social planner and I were strapped for time Saturday but we did manage to make it to our two favorite resale shops before she had to head off to meet with the builder. The good news about this week's shopping trip was that I already knew what I was looking for, and the social planner wasn't looking for anything.

All that I was looking for was a tarnished silver plated platter. No luck on that account but I remembered that I needed a vintage overhead light cover for an up coming project. I happen to know that one of those places sells them for a quarter. As I moved through the store inspiration struck. A huge "painting" like my grandmother had over her couch when I was growing up was leaned against the wall. When I say huge I mean 48 inches by 24 inches. It had a solid wood 4 inch frame. Hubby said that picture moulding that big would be $3.00 a foot. 12 linear feet of moulding. I offered the nice lady $5.00 for the masterpiece and walked out with this beauty.

Last week as I searched Pinterest for guest room ideas I ran across this saying: Where there is room in the heart, there is room in the house. By Thomas Moore



I have been thinking about a project that Dear Lillie did at dearlillieblog.blogspot. This was the perfect frame and project to try out my mad skills with a chalkboard marker.

I was shocked that we had a piece of hardboard big enough to make a chalkboard for the frame. After my sweet husband pulled out all the staples from the warped, mildewed, faded art I got busy. A good cleaning, then liquid sand for the frame. I had some flat white latex paint in my stash so no cost there. It took three coats to get the frame looking smooth.

It looks rough after the first coat. No worries!

I really am getting better with the chalkboard paint. I have discovered the secret. Sandpaper just didn't work for me between coats but steel wool does the job like nobody's business. Thin coats, wait for each coat to dry then steel wool between each coat and it came out smooth as a baby's bottom. It took four coats of chalkboard paint. You have to wait three days to season the board by rubbing chalk over the whole surface according to the directions. After it is seasoned it it good to go. I do have access to an overhead so I plan on creating the saying in nice script then printing it to one of my old printer transparencies. i couldn't get rid of them when I left the classroom. I will post the finished sign this week but doesn't the frame look great?

Dear Lillie Blogspot