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It's fun taking something apart and putting it back
together again in a new creative way. I work in an office
where we had a lot of old promotional type posters that
were very expensively matted and framed. Now that we're
moving to a new office we wanted something new, but
didn't want to spend a lot of money decorating. We decided
to disassemble the old frames and re-use the mats to
frame new prints.
We made a visit to a local craft store and found an
abundance of inexpensive artwork in all sizes, ranging
in price from $1.49 to $40.00. Definitely within our
budget. We picked out several beautiful floral prints
and framed them with the old mats and frames. Disassembling
the old prints included tearing off most of the prints
that had previously been glued to the mats, but I just
tore it all off and used scotch tape to tack down the
new prints.
The new prints don't have to completely fit your frames
or mats, either. It was hard finding prints that were
just the right size. Don't be afraid to move the print
around in a mat that's a little too small. Often you
can cover some edges of the print and not take away
from the overall effect of the picture at all. Just
trim edges where necessary to make the print fit (after
you've double checked your positioning within the mat).
You can also buy bigger mats to make a smaller print
fit in a larger frame.
If you don't care if all of your frames match, it's
very inexpensive to shop thrift stores and yard sales
for cheap prints and re-use the mats and frames for
new prints. Or go through some of your own old prints
and redecorate!
Also, when looking for inexpensive prints, don't limit
yourself to poster prints. Postcards and greeting cards
also look great framed. Add a mat and you'll never be
able to tell the difference.
You don't need a lot of special tools to get started.
All you really need is possibly a screwdriver for disassembling
frames, a ruler to make sure your print is straight,
some tape for attaching the print to the mat, and a
pencil and scissors for marking and trimming prints
that don't quite fit.
You don't have to spend a lot of money to have great
wall art. It just takes a little planning ahead to match
print sizes to frames and match colors. Have fun, and
use your imagination! A beautiful picture really brightens
up a room, and you can create your own easily and inexpensively.
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