Frame Redo
I was blessed to make a trip to the Country Living Fair in Atlanta this past October. First let me say, completely worth the trip! We had an amazing time, bought way too much, walked away with way too many ideas, and also had a pile of things I purchased and hadn't got around to doing anything with. Needless to say, the pile of great stuff in the corner of my guest room was making sad and I decided to make a dent in it one project at a time.
One of my first purchases was a vintage flashcard printed with the word 'dishes.' Simple I know, but we have a large spot above the kitchen window above the sink and I knew I wanted to do something with this flashcard there. Wasn't sure what that project would be but at 75 cents for the flashcard I figured it was worth the gamble. So it sat... for 6 months and here we are. I finally decided what to do. I took a wooden frame I'd purchased when I first got married and had done a horrible paint job with blue latex paint. It was then relegated to storage so I pulled it out and revamped it.
Our kitchen cabinets are green so I went with cobblestone as the underlayer. I did sand back the frame slightly before beginning. However, the frame had extremely sharp edges and I wanted smooth, more rounded, edges. I could have done this during the distressing but I wanted to minimize the chance of the blue coming through and didn't want to be limited once I'd finished painting. I mushed Textured Basecoat Cobblestone and went for full coverage, again to minimize any chance of the blue coming through.
I followed it up with Country Living Chipping Creme-that all important isolation barrier between the colors and to give the most authentic distressed look out there with minimal work. The Chipping Creme goes on milky and dries completely clear. Once its clear, you're ready to move on to the next color.
I followed that layer with Texture Basecoat Peppercorn. I've always loved black in kitchens and hope to have at least black lower cabinets one day but until we rework the kitchen to have more natural light, I'll have to settle for black accents like this frame.
I wanted relatively full coverage but, as you can see, I wasn't overly concerned with getting complete coverage and parts of the cobblestone were still peaking through.
Once dry, I sanded back to my desired amount of distress. Best part... no blue came through! Here's a quick shot, up-close, of the frame right after I'd finished distressing. One side shows the dust still on the frame and the other is the reveal once the dust is wiped away. If you're unsure, along the way if you've distressed enough, stop and wipe away the dust. Many times it will reveal that you've distressed more than you believed and the dust was just concealing it.
Gorgeous right! I was so excited at this point and then remembered I had to figure out exactly how to mount the flashcard. I decided on attaching an old piece of tablecloth fabric I had to the cardboard backing and then mounting the flashcard to the fabric. I say 'mount.' What I really mean is that I cut and taped the fabric and then taped the flashcard into the middle of the board. Let's just say, when I need serious things done with fabric... I hire someone. No questions asked.
So finally, after six months, I've finally finished a project from the CL Fair! I love the frame and it really feels like it was made for the spot. If you want to make something similar to this, don't worry, you don't need to purchase quarts. I have sample sizes of all the colors, and chipping creme as well, and its more than enough to complete a frame like this and a few more! Hope y'all have a great week!