Do you remember the DIY picture frame that I posted a while back?? It was basically a piece of MDF, cut to size and painted, inspired by this post from Bower Power.
Well, after I did the faux shiplap treatment to the wall in our family room, I knew that I would have to make some adjustments to our family photo frame. This is how it looked after I painted the wall.
Ugh. The frame just kind of melted into the background of the wall…not a good look. (sorry for the blurry pic – I zoomed in so you could see a bit closer)
I pondered how to fix this for a few weeks. I went to Micheal’s and Joann’s to price custom framing, which was around $150 for a mat, a frame, and no glass. I actually thought about doing that until I saw this post from Young House Love. They made these wooden frames for some large posters, and even though I was dealing with a MDF and not a poster, I figured I could adapt it a bit. This was the pic from their post that inspired me.
So here’s my made up, slightly jerry-rigged process for how to make a DIY, mounted, framed, picture frame, ha!
I went and picked up 2 boards of 6-foot, 1″ x 2″ pine from Home Depot. I originally had them cut it to my specs, but it was off by a 1/4″. They do allow a 1/4″ variance in their cuts, but since I needed this to be precise, I went back and they allowed me to return the cut boards for 2 more 6-foot pine boards.
Once I got home I decided to muster up the courage to use our miter saw.
I have never used this before and I was pretty intimidated, but I wanted this project to be done, so I found a YouTube video on how to use it and cut myself 4 pieces to fit my exact specifications. Yay!!!
Once I made my four cuts (2 boards, 21″ long and 2 boards, 31 inches long) I sanded and stained the boards.
And because I didn’t want to mess it up using nails or screws (I figured I got lucky with making perfects cuts, couldn’t mess up now), I used wood glue and glued the boards to the MDF frame. And for extra good measure, held them in place with hand weights and a bottle of juice! (that’s the jerry-rigging part, lol).
I also painted the outer edges of the MDF with a bright white paint to bring more contrast against the shiplap wall, which is painted Alabaster from Sherwin Williams. Those “tabs” are velcro Command Strips that I used to adhere the picture to the MDF board.
I only let it dry for 2 hours before I hung it up. The bottle said to wait 24 hours, but I was getting too antsy!
I feel like breathing a sigh of relief that I was actually able to pull this off. I’m so glad that I mustered up the courage to use the saw. Ladies, you can do this kind of stuff! I am definitely going to start using it more…maybe some board and batten?? Haha! I might need a little more practice first, but I’m really proud of how this turned out!
Looks soooo good!
Glad you like it!!!
Looks really good!! Nice job. Always
So impressed with you.
Aww, thank you!
Fabulous outcome. I’ll have to get you a tool belt for Christmas!!!
Haha, maybe so!