Dining Room Projects, Part II

Next up in the dining room project tutorials…

I had a very old (and not particularly special) oil painting that I got for half a Euro at a flea market in Brussels. I thought it would look nice in my dining room because it’s mostly neutral, but has a little pop of orange-red. It really needed a frame though, and since European canvases are not the same size as American standard sizes (and it’s old, I think before there were standard sizes), I knew I would have to get a custom frame.

These two options from Michael’s were along the lines of what I wanted – small and somewhat understated. Guess how much though, even with a 60% off sale? $175 each. For just a little bit of moulding! Custom framing is crazy expensive.

I saved myself all that cash by picking up a set of these framing slats on that same trip to Michael’s. There are several finishes to choose from and then it’s just a matter of buying the correct length and width slats for the painting. With my coupon, the frame was $10 total.

I stopped by Home Depot on the way home and picked up an 8-foot length of decorative moulding for $5. I liked the rope moulding (below) a lot and it worked well for this project because it was the exact width as my Michael’s frame.

When I got home I assembled the frame according to the package directions, with a little bit of wood glue. While that dried, I laid out my moulding on top of the frame and marked the corners off. {Note: I probably could have used a miter box here, but I’m lazy and knew I was going to fill the corners}

Then I just used my very favorite $7 coping saw and easily made the corner cuts. I used wood glue to attach the pieces to the frame front and then filled in the gaps in the corners with wood filler.

Once everything was dry, I spray painted the new frame with Krylon’s Grecian Stone spray paint. I was going to gold leaf the frame, but I ended up really liking the gray in the room. The frame is not museum-quality, but it was only $15.

Next project! Who doesn’t love a good gourd lamp? I found this one at TJ Maxx on major clearance for $4.50. I think it was so cheap because the brand is Amy Coe, which I’m pretty sure is a nursery line? Yeah, so were not talking about a Christopher Spitzmiller lamp here, but I thought the shape was pretty.

First, after taping off the cord, I spray painted only the base gold.

After letting that completely dry, I taped off the gold and spray painted the body of the lamp a nice peacock blue color from Sherwin Williams’ clearance aisle. Unfortunately the color is much less teal in actuality, and more of a true blue, but I think it’s fine in the dining room.

I finished off the lamp with a few coats of Wipe On Poly in the gloss finish, to really shine the lamp up.

The last project to share today was really simple. I reupholstered the drop seat of this little side chair with some leaf green linen that was pretty, but a little boring as it was.

So I taped off stripes with some frog tape and spray painted the seat (a la Eddie Ross) with the same blue that I used on the lamp.

I think the stripes are a fun pop of pattern in the room! And they don’t look spray-painted on, even up close.

I’m off to do some fabric shopping with my mom and sister, who are in town visiting for the week. Hope you’re having a great Tuesday!