A House to Fill: Under $15

We're not really a "photos of ourselves kind of couple", which you're probably aware of if you've checked out the "about" page. We have a couple frames we got as wedding gifts that we've been meaning to put wedding photos in (for the last 2 years) and once we're unpacked I'll probably actually do it, but that's about it. Maybe our feelings will change once we have kids, but until then we've got a lot of blank wall space.

I was at a thrift store over the weekend and I saw they were having a frame sale. All the frames you could fit in a box for $5. Who could pass that up? So I grabbed a box and filled it with frames. I knew I was going to paint them all black, so I wasn't too picky about the condition or finish. After 20 minutes of digging through frames, 10 frames and a cute little mirror got to come home with me.

Next I stopped by Jo-Ann Fabric and Dollar Tree to pick up a couple more supplies. In all I ended up with:

~ 10 Frames & Mirror ($5)
~ 2 Sheets of Foam Board ($1 each at Dollar Tree)
~ 6 Sheets of Scrap Book Paper ($0.96)
~ 2 Sheets of Decorative Matting Paper for the bigger frames ($2.50 each)
~ Spray Adhesive
~ Krylon Black Gloss Spray Paint

I'm going to say up front that I should have taken more pictures along the way, but it was a pretty simple project, so I didn't think about it. I promise I'll do better next time. And I'm not sure where the camera is, so you guys are stuck with cell phone pictures. Sorry.

First I took the backing and glass out of the frames that had them. Then I painted all the frames with Krylon Black Gloss. When they dried, I had this:

While I waited for the paint to dry, I cut the foam board down to the size of the frames using the removed glass as a template. I should point out that since a couple of the frames didn't have any glass I traced those frames on the foam board before painting them so I would know what size to cut them down to. I forgot to take a picture of this step, but you're smart so I trust you can imagine what a piece of foam board looks like.

Next I focused my attention on the paper. Once again, I didn't take a picture of this step, but everyone's cut paper before right? That's what I did.

I went out to the garage to check on the frames and while I was out there I adhered the paper to the foam board with some spray adhesive. I also sprayed my hands (hmmm... there seems to be a pattern, maybe I shouldn't be allowed around aerosol cans), but I think the project will work just as well if you skip that step. When the adhesive had dried (on my hands and the foam board), I had this:

Then I popped the papered foam board back in to the frames:

By far the hardest part of this project was deciding on a layout. I sat on the living room floor for at least an hour arranging and rearranging the frames until I found a layout I liked. A hammer, a couple nails, and some poster tape to keep them from shifting and I was done.