Getting my family to "sit" for family pictures takes lots of nagging, even more bribing and a pinch of guilt thrown in just to seal the deal. So when it did actually happen I had to find a way to prominently display the pictures, because lets be honest I'm not sure when it will happen again!
Thankfully, I had this old window stashed away in my ever growing pile of treasures and I decided now would be a good time to use it. The window already had great character with lots of white chipping paint from its former life, so I used little cup hooks and picture hanging wire on the back about 1/3 of the way down from the top so I could hang the finished product and then flipped it over.
Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of the painting but here's what I did. After wiping down the front and getting rid of the dust and dirt, I lightly sanded the wood to chip off any loose paint then just quickly brushed on a coat of dark brown paint, then a little turquoise and finally some white.
This is meant to look rustic and aged so haphazardly painting it is perfect, I just kept painting and sanding a little in spots until I got the look I wanted. Be creative, there are so many great color combos to try! For this I just used little bottles of craft paint for 59 cents, so it's a cheap, fun way to tie in some new colors without the commitment of buying a gallon of paint!
After the paint was dry and distressed, I cleaned both sides of the glass with windex and then used these inexpensive little photo corners to stick the photos to the window, which you can pick up from the scrap booking section of most stores.
The photo corners are meant to slide on the photo with the sticky side to the back, but for this I flipped the stickers around backwards so the sticky faced the front and then pressed them from the back of the window to the glass.
To finish it off I used a piece of scrap burlap and some thumbtacks to attach it to the back of the window. I was afraid of breaking the glass while hammering or stapling the fabric and the thumb tacks worked great!
The photos look great behind the glass, obviously I am a little biased I sort of love those mugs!!!
Because the photos, which I just printed at Walmart, are attached directly to the glass instead of to the fabric behind, I've had no issues with them falling or slipping out of place.
The window is on my "intial wall" in the living room. It's still a work in progress, but it's getting there. The metal letters and door knobs are from Hobby Lobby. The metal stars I have had for years, I just decided to paint some turquoise on the white ones to tie in the color.
This "W" is a cheap wood letter that I painted with left over paint from the window, added a few antique color upholstery tacks and the stapled on some burlap ribbon to the back, tied it in a bow and hung it on one of the knobs.
It's been a really inexpensive way to fill a big wall in our living room with some personal "art".
We really love how it turned out, I hope you do too! Go grab a window, some paint and a few pictures and make one too ;)
Enjoy,
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