Framing 101

I have had a lot of people come into my home and ask me about the different frames I have on my walls. So I thought I would do a little post about some inexpensive ways to frame your pictures.

When you walk into my house the first thing you see is my living room. I wanted a nice big family picture to put on the wall but I soon realized how expensive it was to frame. I looked into getting it framed and matted but it was hundreds of dollars...even with a coupon. So I finally found a frame at Micheal's on sale for about $40, but I still had the problem of getting it matted. I talked to a friend who gave me a killer idea! Instead of matting what you do is make a floating frame.

The idea is to have your picture sandwiched between two pieces of glass. That way the wall acts as your matting. I just went to a local glass cutter and had them cut me a piece of glass to fit inside of the frame. I think for a 20x30 piece it was around $20. Then I just took some hot glue and sealed a few spots around the edges to hold it in place.

Another alternate to matting is what I did in my son's room.

These pictures I had ordered with a white edge around them. Then I just taped them to a piece of brown cardstock and stuck it in the frame. You can't even tell its not real matting unless you get really close.

Another framing tip is to check your local thrift stores for frames. Almost all of the frames in my house came from the thrift store. I mostly buy 8x10 from them, but they are only about $1 a piece! Then you can paint them whatever color you want. I love doing this because you can get a variety of frames that kind of change it up a bit.

And there is a just a few of my framing ideas. I hope that helps some of you!