Gold pictures frames get a makeover

Yesterday I worked on my powder room. It wasn't a big renovation (although I would love to take out the mirror, replace the lights, and add glass tile down the vanity wall - but that's for the future). All I did was paint a few pictures, a small little table and hang a fabulous shelf I found at a consignment shop.

First things first - I had to remove pictures I had hung in there when we moved into this house. They're about 10 years old, and each were framed in gold frames. I like the botanical prints inside - just have outgrown those gold frames. In removing them, I had a few little holes to patch in the walls. A quick slab of joint compound, some light sanding and a coat of our original wall color (another thing to change sometime soon), and we were back in business.

The picture frames got a coat of in Old White. Just one coat and no wax (Why no wax? There's very little potential for the frames to see any touch of water, so a seal isn't needed). To distress, all I had to do was dampen a cloth and rub over the raised edges. The paint came right off. We actually worked on this technique at the Annie Sloan workshop I attended in Leesburg. They provided us with a gold, gilded piece of trim work. My frames were very similar with their detailing, so I pulled out my notes and proceeded with the same steps.

Next I quickly painted a small little table I keep in the bathroom to hold toilet paper and tissues. This got a coat of Duck Egg Blue, clear wax and distressing. I went with the blue, as I want that to be my accent color in the tiny little room. I hope to pick up some pretty little hand towels the next time I am out in that same color. Shouldn't be too difficult - since summer is upon us it seems every retailer is pushing nautical and beach decor themes and gorgeous shades of blue are in abundance.

After everything was painted and my bathroom wall was dry - which took all of 5 minutes because the space, which is about the size of a catholic confessional, heats up like a sauna when the door is closed - I hung the shelf. This was no small feat. Each iron bracket is heavy and had 6 screws to anchor them to the wall. I had to measure the wall, measure the distance between the two brackets and figure out how to space it smack dab in the middle. That required math. MATH.

After 20 minutes of thinking and making pencil marks on my wall I was ready to drill anchor holes. Slapped in those plastic wall anchors, and used hubby's big boy electric screwdriver. I felt so Holmes on Homes!

Here you can see what the largest frame used to look like.

And here's the "before" for one of the smaller frames...

Here they are all finished up! The white gives them a softer, more feminine feeling.

And here's the shelf hanging happily in the powder room.

And the small pictures on the back wall.

And a close up of the iron brackets. Love the chippy paint! I did not paint these - found this shelf with the included brackets at a consignment shop. It's from Pottery Barn, so I'm sure you could grab the same thing off the internet.

There ya have it. Another project checked off my to-do list!