Take an old 1930's wooden oak frame that is starting to part at the corners, has lost it's glass and maybe isn't quite 100% square anymore - what do you do with it? Frame something of course - but not in the usual way!
I found this old frame at a local antique store and brought it home with me as it matched exactly the style of another oak frame I had found at a local market, and having continuity throughout the house design wise is something I like to do.
I sat it on top of a set of drawers and pondered how I would use it and it occurred to me that I could frame anything if I kept it as is without glass or backing board. So I removed it's hanging wire and instead used two large velcro Command brand picture hanging strips each side in the top half of the frame to hang it instead. (Make sure to use strips that can handle the weight of your frame.)
I left the two halves of the strip together whilst I worked out the height of frame above my cabinet, I used some stacked books to get the height right and this also acted as a guide for final placement of the frame. I removed the backing from the second half of the sticky strips and then placed the frame on top of the books and pressed it firmly against the wall.
As directed by the manufacturer I then careful removed the frame from the wall leaving behind the second half of the strips now stuck to the wall, so the glue could 'cure' without any weight on it, and in due course pressed my frame back in place, and it was held firmly on the wall by the velcro sticky strips.
Now the fun part, what to frame? I had two old silver plated trays/plates I had been keeping for sometime, one was nicely detailed around the edges and the other was not even real silver plate, just one of those cheap faux silver catering trays I picked up at a junk store for $1, but I liked it's shape. I used my favourite Rustoleum brand white paint and gave them two coats of white back and front after first using a kitchen pot scourer to rough them up slightly so the paint would have a better surface to grip.
After the paint had thoroughly dried I used a small amount of Rustoleum's Decorative Glaze from their chalk paint range in Smokey Black to highlight the details of each plates design. I painted the glaze on, left it a minute and before it had time to dry rubbed most of it back off using a clean soft lint free cloth.
If I rubbed off too much glaze I repeated the process until I was happy with the amount of glaze left in the crevices of the each plate's decorative design. I wanted a subtle effect, just enough to make the decoration pop.
I then used conventional plate hangers and hung the plates to the wall inside the frame using picture hooks. That's it - finished!
It was quick and easy to do and didn't cost me much at all either.
For Christmas I added some simple round plant fibre wreaths with a natural wood style snowflake and jute ribbon as shown in the main image above. The natural earth tomes of the decorations worked well with the wood of the frame and the plate hangers made it easy to hang the decorations in place as they gave me something to attach the ribbon to.
Throughout the year I can easily decorate these all white plates with a variety of seasonal decoration or leave them beautifully simple. It is also easy to quickly remove them and hang china plates or a wreath inside the frame if I want a major change.
So go grab that old frame you had collecting dust in the shed, under the house or sitting forgotten in your attic, clean it up and stick it on your wall. Then let inspiration strike for what to place inside the frame - I bet you have multiple ideas bubbling up before you even have the frame up on the wall!