There are a million painting tutorials online, so this will definitely not be another! In fact, I rank among the worst painters imaginable…seriously, spray painting seems like it should be foolproof, but I always manage to mess it up. Occasionally, however, the need to alter a piece is greater than the potential to completely ruin it, so I grab a can. Like this:
Our large wedding picture has always hung in a gold frame that spent what was a lot of money on 16 years ago when we first set up house. With the new updates planned for our master bedroom, though, I needed to swap out the gold for silver. I figured that this was a perfect time to try a paint and distress technique, because nothing would really be lost if the project was a disaster.
Having scanned through a slew of tutorials (mostly with my eyes glazed over from sheer dread), I decided that a vaseline-resist technique seemed easiest. I hadn’t read anything about doing it with spray paint, though, so it was bound to be an adventure…
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| Like my plastic grocery bags covering the sawhorses? I’m fancy like that. |
The basic idea is that the paint doesn’t adhere to the bits where you’ve put the vaseline, so you can wipe it right off, leaving the base color behind. It only takes a q-tip and a swipe along some edges, then paint as usual…
When the paint is partially (mostly?) dry, I took another dry q-tip and worked around the edges again. I admit to freaking out a bit when the paint started coming up, even though that’s exactly what it’s supposed to do. Distressing is new for me. I think I also had this mental image of very fine, precise areas of background, and what this technique gives you is much broader. Despite good logic, I wasn’t expecting sections that wide to show through.
I grabbed some super fine steel wool to try to buff up the edges a bit more, thinking it might give me the look in my head. All it really did was expose bare wood through the original finish.
I figured the best way to see if it was tolerable was to put it back together, see it in the space and let it simmer a while. A couple weeks have now passed, and I’ve decided I’m keeping it. The project cost me nearly nothing to do, and for this frame in this space, it works…even if it took some getting used to.
Here’s the thing: the actual painting and distressing process causes you to fixate on the details much more than you ever do simply living with the finished piece. I’ve never walked by the frame hanging on the wall, and thought, “Man, I wish that line of distressing was narrower.” Honestly, it’s a perfect example of the sum being greater than its parts.
I’m calling this painted and distressed frame a success. I doubt it’s something I’d try for a high-visibility space or with real money (or a client) on the line, but I’m content.
Only a few more details to finish up, then I can show you the full master bedroom reveal! Spoiler: if you follow me on Instagram, there are sneak peeks galore, including how I hung this in a gallery wall–with a silver twist!
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