Quick and Easy Project: Spruce Up Your Home Post-Xmas

You’ve finally taken down the holiday lights, un-decorated your tree, and put away the jingle bells. And it’s about time, because since the day after Christmas, those cute little decorations that brought so much joy when you took them out of the box have been staring at you with their cold, hard eyes wondering what the hell took you so long to put them away, you slacker. Just kidding. It’s still early, but if you’ve already “de-Chrismafied” your home, then good for you.

A quick shake of the glitter from your hair and a glance around your home may leave you feeling as though your house needs…something. For me, right after putting away the holiday decorations is a great time to refresh my space with a simple decorative project. A few months back, my mother-in-law had given us four gold 16×20 photo frames to hang on the wall. This posed a couple of problems: first, nothing in our house really matches that type of gold, and second, what the heck do we have to put in frames that size? We thought about having them matted, and putting a small picture in them, but of course the only matting I liked cost a small fortune, and I felt that putting a small picture inside wouldn’t do the frames any justice. Luckily, my MIL is all about changing things to make them “fit” into your own home, so I knew she wouldn’t be offended if we did a little tweaking, and armed with a can of black spray paint and her philosphy (“Don’t think of what it is, but think of what it could be!”), we did just that. The result was an inexpensive yet impressive upgrade to the space above our kitchen cabinets that is doable for anyone. See project below…

Materials

Any old picture frames

Can of black spray paint or color of your choice (from any craft or home improvement store; ours came from Lowe’s, and it’s Valspar “The Perfect Finish”, Flat Interior)

Newspaper to lay frames on when you spray

Step 1:

Remove backing and glass from frames, set aside. Spread out a decent amount of newspapers on an outdoor area such as your driveway or garage (we did this in our garage), and set the frames on top of the paper. *If you are doing this in your garage, be sure to keep the garage door open, or slightly open, to avoid the fumes. Or, if you’re having that kind of day, keep the door closed. I won’t judge.

Step 2:

Spray away. Let dry for a half hour.

Step 3:

Once you’ve checked and made sure that your frames are dry, use them however you’d like to refresh a space in your home:

My plans for the two on the far right are to place another object in front of one, and put a kitchen-themed picture in the other. But from the pic, you can get the idea. The project was super easy, totally inexpensive, and made a huge difference in our kitchen. It’s the little things!