Friday, January 4, 2013

Free Art (Week 1, Project 2)

My mom picked up this framed painting on the side of the road, along with the smallish ornately framed mirror - so, literally, free! 

 
The painting was a little dull and there was something about it that depressed me a bit.  The frame had really interesting lines and textures, but the finish made it feel dated.  The metallic finish on the mirror's frame made it a bit too "fancy" for my house, but my brain kept seeing it in a flat finish...and made me stash both pieces for probably close to a year...eek!

So while I had the old paint out for the butterfly canvases, I decided to finally do something about these, too.  Baby girl has some seriously bare wall space in her room.  Here's what I ended up with:

 
The mirror just got a simple coat of flat paint and turned out exactly as I had pictured.  It almost looks like it is handcarved up close, now.    I'm happy.
 




I'm also really happy with the large frame - the unified color really did modernize the frame.  The initial, however, I'm not totally in love with.  I used painter's tape for the initial, then went over it with a pearly paint I had on hand for a little shine.  In person it does have a nice shimmer, and I like it enough to keep it as-is for now, but it will probably get another makeover at some point.
 

Behind the scenes: I had to actually get into a little closet under the roofline to get the top "after" shot since the alternate option of running all the way down stairs to change my lens didn't appeal.  My "assistant" held the door for me... 
 

 
...and spied on me.  I love that kid.

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