The Frame-Up

Probably a year ago, I spotted the cutest Pin somewhere out there on the internet. I wish I'd saved the link because the moment I saw it, I knew I wanted one of my own. The basic idea was to dress up an otherwise-atrocious thermostat by slapping a cute frame around it. My place seems to be filled with ugly boxes on the walls, so when I thought of a way to make them less terrible, I was definitely in!

I measured my thermostat. Sort of. I sort of measured it. And off to JoAnn's I went, armed with enthusiasm and a coupon.

My first draft was this goofy little red frame. I wish I'd gotten a better photo of it to help you see that it actually doesn't fit around the thermostat box very well. It's a 3x5 frame, which just isn't big enough - though I worried a lot that a 4x6 would turn out to be too big. It's also not the woodworkers finest project, given that the two sides are not quite the same shape, nor are they the same width. You add some overly dark red paint, gold polka dots that don't match the rest of the room and which are quite uneven, and some glitter that was leftover on the brush from another project, and you get something I'd characterize as a minor disaster. I made the first draft sometime back in the fall, and it didn't take long for me to get focused on other projects.

I spent some time looking for a charming little frame but it wasn't until recently that I ran across something that was basically perfect at Michaels:

The fit on this frame isn't quite as close, but it's close enough so it doesn't look weird. I was also worried about this frame bumping into the one on the bottom left-hand corner of this photo, so I was happy that the edging wasn't so wide as to create any problems.

I think one of the reasons I was so unhappy with the little red frame is that I was never crazy about the color. It took me a very long time to decide what I wanted to do. I have to admit I was inspired by this post over at Young House Love - and how the bloggers came to the decision that blue was the thing! I was also looking for a color that was a real color, but that was not going to try to steal the show.

I decided to go with this bright navy, which is sort of an important background color in my living room,

I got this bitty bottle of a color called (succinctly) "dark blue" for 40 cents at Michaels during a sale. Budget friendly for sure!

I quick slapped on two coats of paint and one coat of polyurethane.

It didn't get as shiny as I had been hoping, but I was basically too impatient to keep doing more coats, especially with all the detailing!

I did a little measuring, made two marks with my pencil, grabbed a hammer and a nail and it was all done!

And here's the wide shot:

With this one out of the way, I can move on to yet another crazy framing project! Stay tuned!