Thrift Store Art

When I shop thrift stores, I love browsing through all the discarded artwork. It always fascinates me to see what people once decorated the walls of their home with. There are usually many great pieces but the frames or matting may not be today's treading colors, but with a little updating or re-purposing they can be loved and enjoyed again. This is a picture I purchased at a local thrift store. It was a hand embroidered piece and was even signed/dated by the lady who made it. I immediately had to purchase it because for one it was a timeless piece, and I could also tell a lot of work and love probably went into creating this piece. It had even been professionally framed.

I loved all the detail in the houses in the picture. This one even had a quilt hanging off the front porch! 

The only problem with the picture was the blue and mauve matting that encased it. These were the trendy colors in the late 1980s and early 1990s. My Mom used these same colors in our home at the time. But in 2015, you don't find these colors in many homes anymore so I knew with a few changes I could make this artwork fit into someone's home today. This particular piece had craft paper back so I took my utility knife and carefully removed it.

I pulled up all the metal tabs holding the artwork in place with the same utility knife. 

Carefully remove the artwork from the frame. Fortunately since this one had been professional done this was easy to remove as everything had been mounted to a foam board. Then separate the artwork from the matting. 

Now its painting time! These can be sprayed painted or painted by hand. I had plans to spray paint the matting on this particular piece, spray paint lays smoother and cuts down on time but the weather wasn't cooperating for me to be outside so I resorted to hand painting it with some of paint stash that I bought on the mis-tint shelf at Lowe's. I choose white for the outer mat and a robin's egg blue for the inner mat. 

A few hard lessons I learned while painting this was one, start with the outer mat first. As you can see here I started on the inner mat and when I went to paint the outside navy mat I got a few stray brush marks on the inner mat that I had to go back and touch up. Also, it would have been best to spray paint the whole mat white first, then go back in with my inner border color. Since the outer mat was such a dark blue it took several coats of white to cover it up. But I finally got it!

Just let it dry overnight and then place it back around your artwork. Clean your inner glass of your frame with a clean cloth and then place your artwork back in the frame and re-secure the tabs. 

The final result is now a timeless piece that can be used in almost any home for generations to come. The white matting really lets the artwork be the focus of the piece now. I left the frame the natural wood, but this could have been sprayed painted also. I may go back and paint it black eventually but I will live with it like this for now. I just love the character and charm of this picture. 

Laura