Empty Picture Frame Wall Collage

My latest project is to make a collage from empty picture frames.  I have a space on my bedroom wall that I think will be just perfect for it, so of course I had to start researching some ideas to get inspiration.  Here are some pictures that inspired me:

The first one is very close to what I am thinking of doing since my bedroom walls are a soft sage green color.  I planned on having all my frames in antique white, in different shapes and sizes.  The criteria for the frames was that they had to have a vintage feel to them, have a variety of interesting patterns  and they had to be frames that I already owned, purchased from garage sales, discount stores, or even better- curbside finds.  The more inexpensive, the better.  I didn't care what color or material they were made from, as I was going to spray paint them all the same color - Heirloom White.

I started  by going through my own large collection of frames and choosing the ones that I thought were the most interesting.  The next step was to make frequent visits to Value Village , Salvation Army and Goodwill stores.  Most of the frames I found were from $1.00 to $5.00.  Some had mirrors in them which I removed, and some had tacky art-work - but I was able to look past this and see their potential.

Here's some of  my hodge-podge collection of frames before spray painting

And after spray-painting......

Once I had all my frames, I removed all the backing material from them, and laid them out on a tarp.  I decided to  do a chippy paint look on them, so that some of the gold would show through after sanding.  I rubbed a plain white candle in random areas on each frame, and on the edges, as well as anywhere there was a raised decorative detail.  Then I sprayed all the frames with Rustoleum Heirloom White spray paint. When the frames where completely dry ( at least overnight)  I sanded or scratched the paint off the areas that I had rubbed with wax.  The wax makes it really easy to  remove the paint and show some gold , without sanding off the underlying gold colour.

When all my frames were done, I laid a bath towel down on my dining room table.  I made sure the towel was the approximate size of the area on my wall that I was hanging the collage.  Then I began experimenting with different layouts.  I kept rearranging the frames until I was happy with the arrangement.  Then it was onto the wall to hang and admire.

Here's the finished product:                                         

I'm pretty happy with the result, but I think I would have used a few more larger frames if I could have found some that I liked in my $5.00 per frame budget.  The good thing about this project is that I can easily change up a few of the frames, or add more if  I want.

Hope you like the result.  Until next time.