Ready-Made Frames For Custom-Tailored Art

Posted by: laurelstreet on: March 6, 2009

• In: Before and After | Decor
• 18 Comments

I’ve been plagued by a very visible trouble spot since we moved into the house in 2006: The dining room wall. It’s the very first thing you see when you walk in the front door:

The ubiquitous 'before shot' - taken right after the move-in in 2006.

I’ve hung all kinds of things in this spot. The mirror was the largest thing I owned, at the time this photo was taken. Basically,  I was using it as ‘filler’ until I found what I thought I was missing: the “perfect” painting on a big scale.

Louis - The book chewer upper

I’ve been annoyed by this wall for two years – I have not yet found that perfect painting. I’ve changed a lot in the dining room in the meantime: I wired in wall sconces, eliminated the busy Persian number on the floor, switched out the furniture and last Saturday even got around to hanging a knockout ceiling medallion and covered the chandelier chain with pretty fabric.

So I was going through some boxes that still had not been sorted from the move a few weeks ago and I came across a stack of  books with chewed up bindings and covers that Louis (Louie) the Boxer had immolated  shortly after he came to live with us. They were three books of German, Italian, and French drawings – I had been just plain sick over their destruction at the time. But they gave my problem wall a solution!

The pictures!

I pulled out nine of my favorite drawings from the books, sized up the space and realized that 9 ready-made 11×14″ frames would do the trick. I found them online and they were very inexpensive. I took my pictures to a high-quality frame shop, Angles Custom Frames on Magazine street, and had mattes cut from museum board (not matte board) and the images mounted. The framers help pick out the perfect shade of off-white to complement the old paper from the books (we looked at probably 40 different whites).

So all framed up, I did a little math for the spacing, pulled out my trusty laser lever and hammer and DONE. My wall is not such a problem any more!

So today, for Julia at HookedOnHouses.net, I’m hooked on using ready-mades frames for custom-tailored art.