I’ve been on the hunt lately for some vintage (and cheap) art to add some character to a gallery wall and I found these two little cuties at my third favorite thrift shop (yes, I have a ranking list for my thrift stores).
These kinda have the vintage-eclectic vibe I’m looking for but they look a little dated. Updating thrift store art finds is a sooooper cheap way to add some vintage looking art to your home. Watch this.
The one on the left is super cute and I love the color combo of the peachy-pink with the yellow. Two bucks. The one on the right has a hideously dated photo mat and a dented up frame but the image inside of the frame is what I love. That deep turquoise blue and some punches of yellow… yeah, so it says “March” at the bottom and I wasn’t born in March, but whatever. I did try to see if I could squeeze in the words “your @ss to the fridge and get me a beer”, but I didn’t think it would fit. But, three bucks? Yeah, snaggin’ it.
Remove the backing from your thrifty finds. Be careful of the glass – this part always makes me nervous….
…but this little note just made me sad. Found this one the back of the smaller one, which was signed “Monta Whitworth 1980” – I can’t make out much except for “…love – Mom”. So sweet.
For the larger one, I wanted the green photo mat to be white so the picture would pack more of a punch.
This stuff right here is the goodness. I always have this in my stash and it’s perfect for so many projects, particularly this one because it leaves a matte finish and has great coverage to get rid of that green. You can really use any kind of spray paint you want, I prefer a matte finish, but I have used gloss spray paint on a photo mat before and it didn’t look terrible. Either way, the key is light dusting strokes to keep from getting any paint runs on your photo mat.
I hit the smaller frame with a semi-gloss white and then went over the small canvas with a light coat of gloss clear spray paint to freshen it up a bit.
I sprayed the large frame with metallic gold, put ’em back together and boom.
After I got them back together, I thought the smaller one needed a little more white in the image, so I went over just a few spots with a white Sharpie paint pen.
And I couldn’t resist Googling Monta Whitworth… Looks like she was from Texas. Not sure how this painting got to a thrift store in Georgia, but I though that was a sweet  little story since I also just recently made my way from Texas to Georgia.
With a few bucks and a couple basic craft supplies, these little babes have a fresh, new life.
Coming soon to a gallery wall near me.
grammygoodwill says
When I was married in 1975, It was popular to buy those flower prints with the couple’s birthday months. Then, of course, you would add the children’s birth months when they came along.
Allison says
Looks great — well done and nice finds!
Jeri says
Is the backdrop wallpaper?
chris aka monkey says
love this cheap easy and good looking xx