frames within a frame

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This is one of the projects I had my parents helping me with when they were here last month. It was inspired (or copied) by this post on Becky Higgins website. If you want to see more in depth details about how to mount the photos, her post does a great job describing it. I used "Picture Hanging Strips" at her suggestion--so easy! I will never go back to nails and a hammer!

This adventure was not without flaws . . . below is our step by step process.

Step 1: Put blue tape up where you think you want your frame to be . . . I left it there for a couple of weeks so that I could "live" with it for a while.

Step 2: Actually there are two steps here, just forgot to take a picture of one. Using a chalk line, chalk where the inside of the frame will be. Using a stencil (I got mine from Michael's with a coupon!), carefully and lightly adhere white stencil paint (it's a little thicker than regular acrylic paint). This is a slow and tedious process, be patient. My first stencil on the wall turned out horrible! The paint bled under because I had put too much on and pressed too hard. I quickly grabbed a wash cloth while the paint was still wet and was able to wipe it all off. My walls are textured which makes it easy for this to happen.

Step 3: This is my dad getting ready to sauder the hole he made in my water pipe that runs inside the wall. Tim and my dad used a stud finder to find all the studs . . . only problem was one of the "studs" was a water pipe. The first screw into the wall hit it and I had water spraying across the room. I think my dad just wanted to be able to play with fire and play hero to the rescue. HA! If you are wondering why we are screwing this frame to the wall--it is WAY to heavy to hang, especially with a toddler that can jump up on the couch and pull on it. That hole in my wall is now hidden underneath the frame . . . not sure what we'll do if we ever sell this house!

Step 4: This was actually Step 3, but I had already finished editing the photos . . . take cute picture of kids lying down inside the frame. This frame was painted before we hung it on the wall. We then had to fill the holes with filler, sand and repaint.

Here is another view of it "in the room."

I had trouble getting a great picture of it straight on because of the light issue I have on either side! Hopefully you get the idea. I originally wanted to do a more distressed looking frame like my friend Kristen did here. I was going for a darker look, but I just couldn't get it to look right. She gives a great description of how to get the distressed look. I ended up using a chocolate paint that went with the dark wood in this room. The frames match my white built-in bookcases.

Please be sure and share if you attempt anything along these lines, I'd love to see! And thanks to my dad for building this frame for me. I forgot to mention, the frame is made out of casing--the part you see on top--attached to a piece of MDF wood (to make it thicker). We got both from a crown molding store--simple and CHEAP! (Thanks for the tip, Amber!)