Updating Thrift Store Art

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.