DIY Wall Decor – Paint Chip Art

A bit ago, I saw online a few bloggers were making art/wall decor using the samples of paint colors that you can get at the store. The same day, I found a great deal at Big Lots for a very large frame with ugly art inside. So I tried to think creatively and cheaply and decide to take a shot at it myself. I didn’t do a very good job at taking step-by-step photos, but oh well…it’s clearly not rocket science since I was able to figure it out on my own.

The flowers and lacey silk didn’t quite match my style.


But $15.00 for this huge frame was a great deal {in my opinion!}
The first step, which was harder than I expected, was to remove the glass and backing from the frame so I could spray paint it.

I’m not a gold person in general, so I decided to transform it with blackish color. I splurged and didn’t go with my usual 99 cents Walmart black spray paint and, on my goodness, it makes a HUGE difference! The paint was way easier to use and took much less to cover and looked tons better. I used Krylon’s Oil Rubbed Bronze paint, very inexpensive at Walmart (like around $3).

A few coats later, my frame looked beautiful with tiny bronze specks catching the light. {Loved the color!} I then stole freely sampled paint chips from the store in the maroon, red, brown families. They’re free & there for the taking, so I really feel no guilt. {Is that bad?!} I cut the chips into 1 inch x 1 inch squares, which took FOREVER. No, really it wasn’t that bad, honestly. I used a cardboard template for the first 20 or so, then gave up and decided I didn’t care if they were all uniform in size.

 




















From there, I just used good old Elmer’s glue and placed them on the lovely floral picture up to where the edges of the mat would go. I didn’t place them in any order; I just tried to avoid having the same color next to itself in many place. Easy enough. {Sorry for the bad glare in the pictures below…I’ll post a better picture when I find a place to hang it.} 




I like the end result, but I think I probably should have been a bit more careful about making sure none of the background showed through. Oh well, 20/20 hindsight. {Good thing I’m not too much of a perfectionist!} I haven’t found the perfect place for it yet – I was thinking our bedroom, but I matches our living room really well, so we’ll see. I figure I better wait to see where we’ll be living this summer before I put too much thought in the placement.
What do you think? I’m not sure if I like it enough to display it, or if it looks like a preschooler made it! Either way, I do love the way the frame turned out!