drab 2 fab: vintage frame makeover

I know I'm not the only one who's loving turquoise these days. My cousin's been in love with it for years, and now I see why. It is SO soothing....yet still vibrant. It's exciting....yet mellow at the same time. I like it. I really like it with our wall colors. Our main floor walls are painted either a medium muddy brownish/green (sounds HORRIBLE, but it's nice) or a soft mustard-y color.

Anyways, I found this old picture of my grandmother's. I immediately LOVED the frame, but didn't love what was IN the frame. I'm thinking what was in the frame was a needlepoint my grandmother did, but truly, I'm not quite sure who did it. At any rate, I knew it had to go. Just not my style.

See what I mean? The contents are...meh...but the FRAME! Wowee! I saw potential!!

See that detail?? I mean, it's so 'mirror mirror on the wall-ish', right?!?! At first, I thought I'd paint it. Just spray it white or black, as I was planning to use it in my entryway and I've got a black/white thing going on in there. Buuuutt.....I decided against painting it first and thought I'd just jump right in to replacing the guts, then go from there.

The back of the frame was covered with brown paper, so I just tore it off.

Underneath the paper - another barrier. A piece of cardboard was taped on with masking tape. No worries - I just took it off...only to find....

...MORE masking tape! I mean TONS of it! Was this my grandma's way of making sure no one could ever get rid of this needlepoint?!?! I think so.

It's okay, grandma! I didn't hurt your creation. But I did take it apart. LOL

I washed up the glass and got to work.

I busted out the iron and a scrap piece of fabric I had in mind for this project.

Once I got the fabric ironed, I simply used Scotch tape to get the fabric on the board.

(take that, masking tape!)

Seriously, that part took me a minute or two. Then I popped it back in the frame. Alright, who am I kidding. There was no 'popping back in.' It was more like poking, prodding, pushing, and almost swearing that thing BACK into the frame. I was sweating after finally getting it in.

I should note for any of you are might be cringing at the fact that I may have possibly ditched grandma's creation. I didn't touch the needlepoint at all. I'm thinking it probably came down to laziness....or the fact that I have limited time to create when the kids are napping...who knows, really. I was just on a mission to get it done!!

And I'm so glad I did.

*sigh*

**happy dance!!**

Isn't it FABULOUS?!?! I'm loving it! I still need to actually hang it on the wall - it's just propped up right now. My idea was really to use it as a dry-erase 'Welcome' message board, and write things on it depending on the occasion. I may even take it down from time to time and let my daughter doodle on it, just to change things up.

I seriously just love this! Completely free and totally beautiful!!

What more could a girl ask for?!?!

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