Thrift stores are full of old gems that can help soften up a modern space. The challenge is using the vintage pieces in a way that elevates the room, rather than making it feel like an antique shop. I was inspired by Christine (@_forthehome) to revamp old art pieces to fit our urban modern home. The idea is simple: paint the background black so that the art pops against it. This gives the piece an abstract and modern feel.
1. The Peachy Project
I picked up a framed print at a local Goodwill. It turns out that I lucked out with this first one, and I’ll explain why later in this post. First thing I had to do was remove the paper backing of the painting. Matt volunteered to pull out the finishing nails that were holding in the glass, art, and cardboard backing in place.
I used acrylic paint and paint brushes from Amazon and got to work. I was a bit skeptical at first… It took a while to paint the edges but overall, it was therapeutic process for me.
Next, I was not a fan of the cherry wood frame, so I decided to transform it into gold with Rub ‘n Buff in the Antique Gold color. It’s a wax with metallic pigments and works much better (and faster) than sanding, priming, and painting. I wrote about it in more detail in the last blog post.
Here’s how this peachy one turned out!
Before 
After 
2. Bouquet with a Broken Corner
I was drawn to the red flowers and was able to get an extra discount for the chipped corner. There are two things to note about this project. One is that it’s a plastic (?) print rather than paper or canvas. This meant that the acrylic paint would just sit on top of the surface and can be scraped off, which actually ended up working out in my favor. Secondly, the style of the art made it difficult to create the clean black outlines as I did with the peachy project.
I tried painting the vase a mustard yellow/brown, then blue, but it felt too much like a “paint night” piece, so I ended up scraping all of the layers off down to the original vase.
Fixing the broken corner actually wasn’t that difficult. I used air dry clay leftover from a holiday craft project to shape the corner. It shrunk as it dried, so I used wood glue and filled the cracks with wood putty I had sitting around. The corner isn’t perfect, but it isn’t very noticeable when you look at the piece as a whole. Maybe someday I’ll go back and smooth it out, but I’m happy with it for now.
As for the gold frame, I used the magical Rub ‘n Buff in Antique Gold once again.
Over the course of the 3 or so days I worked on this, there were times I wanted to scrap this as a failed project. I’m glad I pushed through because it actually turned out pretty good! The red flowers are dreamy and it’s a good change of pace from the blues.
Before 
After
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