A DIY “Art” Project for the Kitchen

I’m actually pretty excited about this project for the main reason that I actually thought of part of this all by myself.  You see people ask me all the time “how did you think of that?”  Most of the time I reply “I didn’t, I saw it online and copied it”.  Well, not this time!  Well, not entirely that is.  I did “borrow” part of this but the other part is mine all mine! 

So, I made this to hang in my kitchen. 

I started with a framed canvas painting that I purchased at Goodwill for $20.  The painting wasn’t even that bad but just wasn’t my taste.  I thought I had a picture of it but apparently I didn’t take one…yet again!  I’m going to MAKE myself take pictures of anything I buy after going to Goodwill, Savers, Salvation Army, Garage Sales, or Estate Sales the minute I walk in the door from now on!  But I digress…

The main reason I bought the picture though was the size of it.  I just knew it would be perfect for a large wall hanging and it would fill the big empty hole that I created in my kitchen (not a literal hole, just a hole in décor) when I moved the wire shelves out of my kitchen and into the storage room.  You can read all about that project here.  So, the first thing I did was take the canvas out of the frame.  Turns out that was a major ordeal.  The frame was actually physically nailed to the frame of the canvas and that was what was holding the frame together.  So, as soon as I took them apart, the frame fell apart. 

I’m not sure you can see it from this picture but this frame was actually just hideous!  It was white and then someone put silver glitter all over it.  I have no idea what look they were going for but my guess was 3rd grade craft project! 

I tried to glue it all back together and that pretty much worked, except for the last corner.  I just left it undone and started work on it.

My idea (the one that is all my own) was to cover the frame by mod podgeing something over it.  I didn’t want to use just anything to cover it either.  I wanted to use pages from a vintage cookbook.  So, I went to Savers one day and looked for an old cookbook and found the perfect one.  It was called Meats and it was printed in 1968…PERFECT!

The pictures were even better!

So, I tore out a bunch of the pages, mostly looking for some that had a cool picture or a recipe on them.  After I tore the pages out, I randomly tore the pages up. 

Next I distressed the edges of all the pages by rubbing a caramel ink on each edge.  (more on this later though).  I took all of my torn pages and just started applying them to the frame, also randomly, but making sure they were all in the same direction.

Once this was done I just let it dry and started working on what would be on the inside of the frame.  My plan was to just frame one of the coffee bags that I had bought online a few months ago.  I saw these after several other bloggers posted about getting this burlap coffee bags from this place online.  They were super cheap!  I think they are $2.99 for 3 of them.  I ended up buying 2 different kinds, sisal and burlap.  I liked them both so I asked my husband to decide which one he liked better.

These were his choices.  He chose the sisal one (the one on top here).  So, I cut off the back of the bag and then stapled the bag over the painting. 

I actually stapled it over the front of the painting too.  I wanted the back of the canvas to be open for easy hanging.  I was a little worried that the painting would show through the sisal but it really doesn’t.

So, now it was time to put it all together.  Unfortunately it didn’t look good AT ALL!  I was so disappointed.  The frame was just too black and white and it just didn’t look good with the natural colors in the coffee bag.  I was not going to admit defeat though.  I just started to think of how I could make it work and then it came to me, I just need to “color” the frame a little.  I didn’t want to completely cover it though because I really liked the recipes and art from the cookbook showing through.  I figured out that the edges that I had distressed by rubbing ink on them was almost the perfect color, but it was too late to ink the entire thing so I started to think of how I could achieve that same look but now while it was all together and decoupaged on the frame.  My solution was to stain it using a wood stain.

I tried to use a red walnut stain first and it didn’t look good at all, so then I grabbed a different color of dark mahogany and it was perfect!  I put on 2 coats and the end result was absolutely perfect and it matched the coffee bag very well!

Once the frame dried I just used my husbands nail gun and attached it to the canvas again.  It worked perfect and the end result was just what I pictured.

It looks great with my printer tray drawer too…

TaDa, it is done and hanging in the kitchen and I love it!  One more thing to do in the kitchen and then this wall will be complete.  I’m working on that next, it’s my thrift store plate wall….coming soon!

So, there you have it.  My very own idea added to a borrowed one and ending up a huge success!  (at least I think it is!)