I'm not sure what got me started in painting. It actually wasn't Pinterest, I know that's for sure, but it has given me some pretty good projects to do. I think it started because I wanted a green bookcase. I have a lot of cheap bookcases and end tables and DVD shelves, and they're all black. I didn't want to spend anymore money and I didn't want to try thrift stores and have to haul something back I didn't totally love. I needed some kind of project to invest some time in, and painting a bookcase the exact color I wanted seemed like a good one.
I bought a cheap "put it together yourself" bookcase. I sanded. I primed. I got sturdy paintbrushes and I painted. I was a painting novice and just used super cheap green acrylic paint. It actually turned out pretty well, but I never put any kind of topcoat or seal on it, which I think I will do when I move before I put it back into use. I just have it in my room with some books of short stories and most of my McSweeney's.
I had pretty much 0 art or decorative things to hang up on my walls when I moved. After I started adventuring and going to lots of shows, I had some pictures I wanted to hang up on my walls, and I didn't just want to tape them up "college style" I wanted to do something a little more grown up. I wanted to display them well and figured hey, why not just frame them? I kept finding black, super plain frames for multiple pictures, or really cheap crazily decorated single picture frames. I liked the multiple picture style, because I could group up similar themed pictures and save some space.
I ended up with a bunch of frames like these, which are super convenient and useful, just... boring and all the same. I printed out a bunch of pictures I wanted to use and matched them up and decided hey, who says I can't do something with these frames? So I got out my trusty cheap acrylic paint and went to work! I did some random colors on a few, and a few I painted to match the pictures going in them. Some of them I just painted the frame and left the matting white, some I painted both (different or the same color). The key was to just get these cheap wood frames, nothing plastic or shiny. If the color I was using was too dark I painted it with my white primer first so the color would really show. It was a fun, quick project and you can easily match pictures or other decor in your room or just do wild random colors. Here are a few of my finished ones:
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| Kevin Barnes |
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| Ben Kweller, Kevin Barnes, and Pete Yorn |
These came out really, really well. They just look like that's the color I bought them in. If I felt like it, I could probably paint over them and do another color but I like the combinations I did. I left a few as the simple black and white, like the pictures I put up of nature adventures. I attempted to add some pizzazz to one and did little swirls and stripes and random things, but I don't have much actual creative talent so it didn't come out that well. I've stuck to just solid colors for the most part and I can't say enough how pleased I am with them and how easy it was. Simple, fun way to add some color to a room!
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