An Incredible Find!

I just got back from a quick trip around town (by bus) to go fetch this wonderful antique frame:



I was amazed to see how wonderfully preserved the frame was. It has the original finish, with strong corners, original wavy glass, and most surprising: no breaks or losses to the ornate and very delicate gesso decorations. I have come across a fair number of these frames over the years, and I would say that 80% of them are damaged in some way.

The frame is a generous size, at 16 x 20, which is a standard (older) picture frame size, and the decorative mouldings are 4 1/2" around that, making the entire frame around 25" x 29".

Best of all: 20$

Here's a detail shot that shows the 4 different combinations of profiles used. As is often the case, the interior moulding in the centre of the frame is made of a separate moulding, which is simply (and crudely) nailed to the larger one.



I hadn't noticed that there was actually a glass with the frame (from the ad) so I might look for a wonderful antique print for this. I was originally going to use it for an oil painting (and I still could).

Gallery Wall

I had quite a lot of pieces to choose from for my gallery wall (as you can see in prior posts), but I thought I'd just quickly go over the ones that I picked for this group.

As you will see below, most of the art and frames that I used were total bargains. I don't think a single piece cost me over 20$, with most being around 5-10$. I estimate the total cost including spray paint, glass, backing boards, and custom mattes at around 60-80$ for the entire group. I am hoping that this will inspire you to keep an eye out for some great pieces, and look for budget friendly options. It's unbelievable how expensive it is to get artwork framed and matted these days. Old frames are very easy to find, and can easily be spray painted to match your decor (a lot of people like to have many similar frames and paint them all black, gold, or white).

For my grouping, I liked a really eclectic mix of frames and styles, but I kept the theme fairly limited (architecture and boats). I have seen many fantastic art walls, and I've been gathering inspiration for mine for quite some time.

Things to consider: Do you want a neat and orderly arrangement (like mine, which is kept within a tight rectangular shape), or a more free-form grouping? The same pieces in a different arrangement can have a very different look.

Here are a few of my favourite inspiration photos, some of which may also get your creative juices flowing, hehe.

Here is one of the most eye-catching examples I've come across. This would be an "advanced" style, since it requires a lot of very careful measuring, and calculation, as well as additional fasteners (I imagine that each piece has 2 nails). I also like the mix of frames, crosses, letters, and plates, yet there is still a theme of browns, greens, metallics, and muted colours.



A nice orderly grouping that includes empty frames.



This is very orderly and simple (with ample spacing), yet still asymmetrical around the edges.



This grouping was one of my inspirations to go with totally mismatched frames and styles. A very cozy and inviting look. This group is also asymmetrical/random.



This is my favourite gallery wall photo. There's just something amazing about the arrangement, and the wall colour. I also adore the classical lithographs used.



A stairwell is a great place for a gallery wall. The only thing to consider here is whether your staircase is wide enough to avoid frequently grazing some frames (as would be the case in my staircase). You may consider additional fasteners here as well. Note the use of matched simple black frames.



My Pieces:



1. - This is a print of Lincoln Cathedral (UK). I found this matted print at Value Village for 5 or 6$. I absolutely love Gothic architecture, and I knew it would look great with some of the other pieces I already had. The frame was a very lucky find from Winners, and it was only 9.99$.

2. - This is a yard sale find that I've had for many years. I believe I bought it in the mid-1990s. It's a pen and ink drawing of Parliament Hill (one of my favourite places to visit, and again: Gothic architecture. Sadly, the mat used was not very high quality, and the core has yellowed and "bled-into" the artwork. I'm sure I paid under 10$ for this piece (and it was framed).

3. - This is an antique print of St. Martin's Church (aka St. Martin-In-The-Fields, UK). It is a hand-coloured lithograph, and it came with a line-decorated mat. I picked it up for 5$ from a local second-hand store. The frame was a yard sale find (I paid maybe 1$ for it?) that had been painted off-white(click to see the frame restoration). I really love this piece.

4. - This is a pen and ink of the Bluenose II. It's dated 1980 on the back, and I'm not sure if it's an original or a print. It was also a yard sale find that I've had for many years. The greyish mat is nearly the same colour as my wall, which is fun.

5. - This is a "mystery piece", simply because I can't remember how I came across it. It's an original pen and ink (you can see some nib marks on the paper and faint pencil lines), and it's signed: Dwayne St Louis 1978. I picked up the beautiful gold fame (no glass, no mat, no back - just the frame) along with a few other empty frames for 5$ at a local second-hand store. For the mat, I actually used some very thick water colour paper that was on clearance (1.89$ for a very large sheet), and I cut it myself with a mat cutter (it needed to be a custom size, and I didn't want to spend 20$ to have one cut). I also cut the glass from a spare sheet that I had on hand.

6. - This black framed print is an original lithograph from 1836(!) and shows the "Radcliffe Camera" (part of Oxford University in London). The building (which is the library) is still standing and it is jaw-droppingly beautiful. This was a Value Village (thrift store) find, and I believe it was around 5$. It is also hand coloured.

7. - This is an original pen and ink by my mother JoAnne. This is the only piece in the grouping that has sentimental value, since it's one of the few pieces that I have that my mom made. She's quite a good artist, but like me, never really finds the time to paint or draw. I believe this is a piece she did when she was in high school. I asked her if she remembered where this covered bridge was, but she said it was just copied from a stock photo. I framed it with a custom cut mat (also the watercolour paper), and I used a very simple black frame that I found at Value Village (4.99$).

8. - This was a very interesting piece that I came across at the Salvation Army Thrift Store just down the street from my house. It's a romanticized version of some sort of sail boat/row boat. The corners have Fleur-de-Lys decorations, and the main sail has some sort of horse/boar/animal on it. It's done in embossed brass. I wasn't sure whether or not I should get it, but since I love old brass (and it ties in well with all the brass on my clocks, old lamps, and accessories) I thought it might look good in a grouping or a vignette with other items. I have no idea how old it is, but the back hanger is stamped with "Made In England". I believe it was 3.99$.

9. - TBD. This was a 2$ frame (one of two), and I think I might have bought it when I went to Lac-Mégantic. I can't be 100% sure. I just remember that it was from a Giant Tigre store, and that they were on clearance for 1.99$. I will likely frame an architecture photo or print in this one.

Another Small Project Done

I got another piece of art framed.

I went out to pick up some more drywall compound, and I stopped at Winners. I ended up finding a beautiful antique reproduction frame for only 10$. Lately, I've been sure to keep a list with me of the art I have (dimensions) and empty frames (needing art) and a small tape measure. This frame was close to a perfect fit for one of my prints, and the style matched.



The print of the church with the dark blue-green matte was a 4.99$ find at Value Village (I've had it for over a year).

This is seriously an awesome price. Not even a sale price, either! Some of the quotes I got for custom frames ran in the HUNDREDS of dollars.



The existing matte was a 1/2 inch wider in both directions, but it was easy to trim it to fit. I am absolutely thrilled with how it looks. I wasn't sure if the black(ish) frame would play nicely next to the dark blue-green, but I absolutely love it. The frame is actually made from cast resin mouldings with some sort of antiqued painted effect, but it looks like a genuine antique frame. I'm leaving the cardboard corners on the frame until I'm ready to hang it.

Another Frame Restoration & Art Post

I decided to get out of the house the other day and go thrifting at Value Village. I often walk away empty-handed, but on this trip, I found a few treasures.

I was there mainly to look for more old frames to frame some of the art from a few posts ago. I ended up finding this:



I initially liked it mainly for the frame, and I didn't think much of the painting, but as I turned it over, I got more interested. Althought it was professionally framed, someone had torn the back open.

The canvas has a sticker on it with an eagle from the "American Photo Supply Co." of Chicago. I was only able to find ONE other photo of a similarly labeled canvas on the web, and that painting was dated 1949. The top also shows a stamp from the "American Art Co. - Distinctive Pictures - Picture Framing - Quality Artist's Materials, Tacoma Wash." This company is actually still in business.





I'm fairly sure that it's oil, but it's not very shiny, so it's either been left unvarnished, or it could also be gouache. Either way it's a pretty decent painting, and I only paid 5.99$ for it. The frame will need just a few touch-ups to the gold paint.

***

Last night, I stumbled onto another old frame that I had in a box in the basement. I don't remember where I got this one, but it was probably a yard sale find. It looks exactly like a gilt antique mirror (the kind with the fragile gesso/plaster decorations), but it's actually FOAM. It must have been cast directly from a mold made from an original frame because it has all the details you would expect to find on the real deal.

The original paint was gold, but then someone painted it white (and did a sloppy job of it). As purchased:



I wanted it "antique gold" again, but stripping it was out of the question, so I just sanded-down the paint blobs, and gave it 2-3 light coats of cheap, bright gold spray paint.



Obviously the new gold paint is too bright and fake looking (especially if you put it next to an old antique gold frame), so I remedied this by rubbing-on a medium brown glaze with a paintbrush and a rag.

SO MUCH BETTER:



It looks like it might have taken a lot of time, but the entire thing was done in just a few hours (most of the time was waiting in between the thin coats of spray paint, since I was doing one side at a time, and rotating the frame every 15-20 minutes. The glazing process only took about 15-20 minutes. The last step was a light coat of satin varnish (also aerosol).

This frame will go on the church litho print.



Detail:



I also scored some curtains for the Office, which need slight modifications to work, so stay tuned for those soon (ish).

Brief News (Photos & Bedding)

I decided a while back that I wanted to have some sort of large photo collage (or at least many framed photos of friends and family), so I went to Wal-Mart and got 48 photos printed out. I also bought a fairly inexpensive 24 photo frame.

I'm thinking of getting a second one, actually. The problem is that 90% of my photos are landscape, and this frame takes 12 portrait, and 12 landscape, so I'm missing 2 photos to finish this frame. I have a ton of extra photos, but none that are portrait style.



So I just went through 100's more of my photos and picked out over a dozen portrait ones, and I'll go back tomorrow (if it's open), and get those printed, along with a few others.

In other news, this is the bedding set I bought the other day, next to my curtain fabric. It's nearly the same brown, but I wasn't intentionally trying to match anything. The comforter set comes with 3 pillows, and the other two (not pictured) are hideous.

Long Overdue Post(s)

Alright, I've been absent from my blog for far too long. Not that much has been done on the house (unfortunately), but I've been busy for the past 2 weekends helping my friends with their bathroom.

The last major projects I worked on, were the demolition of the built-in in the Office (see below), and installing the casings on the dining room side of the arch on the first floor (not 100% done yet).

Here's the Office built-in demo. Now, some of you might be wondering why I'd take out this built-in, since it's in pretty nice shape, and it's decently old. There are several reasons, but mainly: I don't like that it doesn't match, it's shallow, and it could be much larger.

I want the Office to have a sort of library feel to it (and I plan to add either freestanding or built-in bookcases). I want the new built-in to blend-in like the one upstairs, with the same mouldings as the doors and windows. I also want this one to have glass doors on it, and to be the full size of the original window.

So yeah, here we go. This is how it looked when I started:



When I first got the house, however, it looked like this:



But I ended up removing that piece of casing and using it as the top for the bathroom door (since it was the exact size I needed).

With the frame removed (and not destroyed either), several layers of wallpapers were discovered. Some of them are actually quite beautiful.



I was also surprised to see that the curved arch was made of a huge solid chunk of wood, rather than just a bent plywood as I had originally thought it would be.



The built-in itself was fairly easy to pry out, since it had only 4 nails holding it to the sides. The resulting hole showed that the window opening was patched with scrap wooden t-g boards and then wallpapered over. As you can see, wallpapering over wood just isn't a great idea.





The original pattern was pretty faded, but this shot shows it off the best. Parts of it were shimmery.



The other nice paper on the inside wall showed a pattern of leaves and fronds with the larger ones in a light cream, and the thinner ones in a gold (reflective).







This shot was taken the next morning. I decided to rip-out all the boards from the opening to maximize the available space. The cinder blocks (as with the other two window holes uncovered so far) show the exterior wall of the building next door.



This particular section of wall was incredibly BAD. This is the main structural wall on their building, and it looks like it was VERY shoddily put together. Unfortunately there really isn't much anyone can do NOW. The building has been this way for probably well over 50 years. But it's still rather shocking to see.





Some gaps are huge. Others seem to have a very poor bond with the cement (with bits crumbling out).




In other house news, I stopped by a local second hand store and scored these two pieces of "art". They're cast resin copies of architectural elements. One is "Doric Door" and "Corinthian Arcades". Both were priced at 15$, which is a pretty good deal, but both frames are in very poor shape, and I'll probably have to take them all apart, reglue them, and repaint them (in a shinier black).

I want these to go on opposite sides of the bed over a night table.





You can see some of the scuffs/dings on the frames in this shot.



I'm also trying to decide what shade of stain I want to use on the inside of the built-in upstairs (which will only be seen when the door is open). I am aiming for an "old orangey shellac" kind of colour. Either in a brownish orange, or an orange.



Thoughts, comments, and opinions are always welcome.