Drab2Fab: 413 {Sparrow} Lane

Thank you for joining us for this week's

Hi there, fellow Bella Nest readers! My name is Misty.
First and foremost, I am a daughter to The Most High my King Jesus,
Wife and Mommy of 2 boys ages 4 and almost 2.
 I created 413 {sparrow} Lane 
(I'm a brand new blogger and am lovin' it!) to serve as my creative outlet
and bless others by sharing how I live a life of frugality one DIY at
a time! From couponing to re-purposing, crafting to cleaning, you
name it 413 {Sparrow} Lane has it! I am super excited and feel
utterly blessed to be featured for this week's Drab2Fab! 

Not only does that excite me, but so does this project!
This painting has been sitting in a closet collecting dust since my
hubby insisted we bring it home from his late Grandfather's home.
Well, there it sat for nearly 2 years! I was inspired by a "pin" I
noticed on Pinterest quite a while back (to be fair I couldn't find
the original author and opted to not include it), and knew this
picture would be perfect. I hope you all enjoy my project and are
inspired to create your very own rustic photo board out of an old UGLY
picture you have taking up space! I'd love to see you around 
413 {sparrow} Lane more often :)

I apologize in advance for some of the pics... I was
having camera tech difficulties and had to keep switching from one
camera to the other : /

BEFORE

First, I started by disassembling the painting, which
included cutting the brown paper backing with my Exacto
knife.

Removing the brown paper to reveal a painted board held
in with staples and a center piece of cardboard used as a brace I'm
assuming.

Pry each staple up. I didn't remove them...
why? 

One word L.A.Z.Y.! Why remove them, there is no need to!

Pull out that U-G-L-Y painting and toss it! Or if you're
like me, leave it laying in the kitchen floor for at least a week...
It's acting as a pseudo-island in there (I'm trying to decide if I
want to put an island in, so walking around this for a while may just
help my decision!)

Here is the hard wood frame revealed!

I flipped it over and painted the inset with black
acrylic paint. I didn't want people to be able to see the staples and
the original color when they're sitting on the couch, because one will
be able to see the inset.

Then, I spray-painted it with a primer. I used an oil
based because that's what I had. BTW, don't do this on a windy day
like I did! The wind kicked the newspaper up and stuck it to my wet
frame so I had to improvise! I opted to take that newspaper, crumple
it up, and wipe the entire frame down. It revealed large areas of the
original wood which I was excited about! I'm going for the rustic and
worn look so I'm not too worried about it!

After I wiped the wet primer with the
newspaper

I sanded down the primer in the areas where it clumps of
primer (from wiping with the newspaper) were at.

Then, I slapped on a coat of stain in Kona from
Rust-oleum

Slapping on stain with a cheap foam brush

Then, I wiped the stain with a damp rag.

Here is the result after the stain, pretty fun! I almost
left it like this but I was just itching to try out some homemade
chalk paint!

Here I am slapping on the homemade chalkpaint. It is
super easy to make I just poured some latex paint in a cup and added a
heaping teaspoon of non-sanded grout (white). I then added water and
mixed it until it was back to the original consistency of the paint.
Easy-peasy! I applied  2 quick coats. The great thing about this
paint is that it dries super quick so you don't have to wait for the
first coat to dry... by the time you get around to the 2nd coat, its
pretty much dry!

After it dried, I sanded down all of the edges and
corners to reveal the color underneath! Super fun!

Next, I mixed up a glaze of brown and black acrylic craft
paint and water. Just mix it to achieve the result you are going for.
I wanted it to be kinda dark so i mixed about a quarter size blob of
each color to about 1/4 C of water. Next, I applied it with a damp,
glaze-soaked rag. I just kept going over it until I achieved the look
I wanted. This dried super fast too! YAY! I'm all about fast
projects!

Then I sanded the entire frame randomly revealing the
stain color under, the primer, and even stripping away some of the
glaze. It gave me a really worn, rustic look, which is EXACTLY what
I'm going for!

I then sprayed the entire frame with a sealer. Nothing
fancy, I just want it to be washable seeing as I have 2 small boys who
put their grubby fingers on EVERYTHING!

Here is my technical way of figuring out how many and how
I want my pictures displayed. I just clipped 4x6's with a clothes pin
and laid them out on the floor in the frame. I didn't want the
clothespin covering up any of the pics above it so I laid them out.

I measured down from the top of the frame, making sure
the clothespin for the top row doesn't overlap the frame. For my
measurements, the first "line" will need to go 2" down from the top,
then 6" down from that (8" from top), then another 6" down from there
(14" from top). 

I noted these measurements on each side of the frame with a pencil.

Finally, I attached the picture frame wire to one side of
the frame (at the marking) with my staple gun and stretched it accross
to the other corresponding mark. Hold it tight and secure it with the
staple gun. I found it  was best to use about 3 fasteners per
side, per wire like follows: while wire is taut, staple it, then fold
it over the staple (still holding it tight) then hit the 2 wires with
a staple, then finally fold it back over that staple and hit it with a
staple... make sense? 

AFTER

THEN, hang it on the wall and attach your photos! I
painted my clothespins yellow for a springy look. 

Whad'ya think!? 

Make sure to stop by for some other fun!