I was about to check out of Michael's and of course walked past the "impulse buy" section in front of the registers. Thrown into a bin was a red acrylic/resin baroque style frame - I had just been researching where I could buy similar ones in bulk on the cheap. I found them for about $2/piece online, but the shipping costs were nuts!
Anyway, the frame did not actually belong there. I tore through every single one of the many bins and had no luck - there was only that one lonely red frame. But I refused to accept that! So I tore through the rest of the store and finally found the lot! And - they were only $2! So I got to skip the shipping costs. Plus I had a coupon for 25% my entire purchase - including sale items! - making them only $1.50 each.
The only issue was they were colors that did not match my wedding of blush, gray. black, and gold. There were white ones, but only 3 of them - I decided to pick up 12 (I am pretty sure that will be enough).
So to fix the color situation, I headed to the paint aisle and found this lovely gem - I thought to myself how beautiful would these frames look in gold?!
Now this is a larger bottle of paint, so it was kind of expensive at $7. However! I had a 40% off coupon (yes, at Michael's, in case you do not already know, you can use two coupons at once as long as they are two different coupons!). With the 40% of of my one regular priced item (my paint) plus the 25% off my entire purchase, this paint turned out to be pretty cheap at only $3 and change.
While there I also decided to get some cute scrapbook paper to place inside of the frames and to make numbers out of. I got a cute gray paper with small white polka dots, cream paper with larger black polka dots, and a blush pink damask paper. For the numbers I got blush pink and gold glittered paper. The paper was on sale for 4/$1 plus again, I had my 25% off coupon for my whole purchase.
Because the frames are smooth, I knew if I just brushed the paint on that it would not stick and would just streak. I was correct. So I tried sanding the frames to roughen the surface so the paint had something to hold on to. That did not work. Then, I just decided to kind of dab the paint on. Voila! Success! Although, this dabbing technique requires a lot of patience! I dabbed on my first coat and there were missing spots all over the place. But once that coat dried I did it again and the frame started to look better. After two coats, the new paint had something to stick to, so the third coat was much easier. It sounds like it takes a lot of paint, but a little dab really did go a long way. For the finishing touches, I just used a smaller regular paintbrush and used the same dabbing technique.
And here is what my frames looked like after they were painted and I put the scrapbook paper in two of the frames:
I have not yet cut out my numbers, but when I do, I will update :)
There you have it - very inexpensive, but expensive-looking DIY shabby chic vintage-inspired table numbers. For all 12 frames plus the paint and paper was only about $22+ tax! With my decor budget of only $250, this budget-friendly DIY project will help me stay on track.
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