Monday, March 3, 2014

We've Been Framed!

The family photos on our dining room wall are almost 4 years old, you can mostly see them in this photo.  Owen was only a year old, which was so long ago that he barely recognizes himself when he looks at the photos.  But regardless of how old they are, we love to look at them during dinner together each evening.  
A good friend of ours took new family photos for us a few months ago, I just hadn't had a chance to do anything with them until recently.  Walgreens, which is conveniently only 3 blocks from our house, was having a sale on their cardboard poster prints.  And since these were cardboard poster prints, I knew if we built our own frames, it would eliminate the need for glass in the frames.

I ordered an 11x14 of each of the kids and a 16x20 of our family picture.  Total price = $35.00.
I had two requirements for the frames we were going to build - chunky and free.  Kind of describes my childhood.  Brent had a bunch of solid cherry scraps in the garage so he started by cutting these four pieces.
I flipped everything over so you could see what the back looked like.  Those holes are the pocket holes we drilled out with our Kreg jig.
When it's time to actually run the screws in, we use this Kreg clamp to hold everything flush.  Never underestimate a good set of clamps.
Adding extra moldings to further chunk it up seemed like an obvious choice, so Brent added this border around the edges.
Normally I would give things a good sanding at this point, but I really wanted these frames to feel rustic and rough with lots of texture, since that sort of plays in with all of our other furnishings.  Rustic and rough also means your kids can further destroy it and it simply "adds character".  No fancy things for the Kruse's!  Anyway, I stained both frames with an American Walnut color.  
Here's where I got stuck - I couldn't decide if I was going to paint the whole thing turquoise and sand some off or if I was going to leave the frame with just the stain - so I went down the middle of the road and chose to leave that outside border stained and just added a thin coat of paint to the interior frame.
With a rougher grit sand paper, I quickly sanded a small amount off shortly after the paint had dried.  I followed up the rough grit with a finer grit to get more detail and I also sanded more roughly around the edges of the frame.
I showed that picture above to my mom and she recommended adding an additional strip of moulding around the inside, to frame out the poster a little bit more.  One of the many reasons I love my mom - because she was absolutely right and I hadn't thought of that!!!
This next photo is after they've received a coat of poly - because I thought that would make them easier to dust.  I'm laughing now, so is Brent and my mom probably, because we all know the probability of me dusting is extremely small.  Ok, so maybe the poly coat will make it easier for me to blow the dust off.
We still have one more frame to build, for the 16x20 poster but since the temperature is -10 degrees today, it's impossible for us to work in the garage so we are on to other projects.  Hopefully we can get the third one built in the next few days and then we're working on a way to hang them in the dining room, which may be a win or a fail - we'll see!

19 comments:

  1. I came in through YHL ... they look great ! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love them! I'm from YHL, too! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Haha I am the third visitor from YHL, good free advertising. Those are fantastic frames!

    ReplyDelete
  4. From YHL too and they look great!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yep another sticky beaker from YHL. Well done on the frames. They look so professional.

    You have the same wood back ground as my blog! Great minds :)
    http://landhousereno.blogspot.com.au/

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love them! How did you fasten the pictures into the frames?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sorry - forgot to show a picture of the completed back side. Since the prints are on poster board, I just used some tape to attach the pictures to the frames.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I just found these with a link posted on Remodelaholic and they couldn't have come at a better time!!! I just rescued two horses from going to slaughter and I have been wanting to take a picture of them to put on their stalls but wasn't sure what frame to use. Viola!!!
    Also, I am going to try my hand at the latest trend of taking photos of objects that look like alphabet letters to spell out their names and frame them as well. Thanks for the inspiration!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Love how your frames came out, especially with the extra molding and the color you used too! I need to make some more frames soon and LOVE how easy the the kreg jig makes everything! Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  10. You may want to check out ClarkColor.com for prints and posters -- I believe they are much cheaper than Walgreens. LOVE your frame design and how you distressed them -- they turned out beautifully!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I wish I were more crafty to makes these frames, they would match our dining room perfectly. Maybe I can find something similar on etsy. Looks great!

    ReplyDelete
  12. So what size,did you make the frames exactly? We're the opening 11x14 and 16x20?

    ReplyDelete
  13. So what size were the frames exactly? We're the opening just the size of the pictures and the frames were built larger around them?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Love these frames! Your mom's suggestion finished them perfectly.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Love these frames! Your mom's suggestion finished them perfectly!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Have you ever considered making these to sell?!? I would love to buy a set of the frames... :D

    ReplyDelete
  17. What is the dimensions to cut the woid

    ReplyDelete
  18. where the dimensions of the frames ever told?

    ReplyDelete
  19. were the dimensions ever told?

    ReplyDelete