PAINTED WALL FRAME FOR LARGE POSTER

I had this project drafted mentally long time ago....and what was that? DIY a picture frame? Na, not that. I am not that handy yet. But will be, someday. The project about painting a fake frame around a picture/poster on the wall.

 The coral colored frame around the black & white poster is what I am sharing today.

Couple years ago, I had the dining room wall with the botanical prints in frames. I liked it, at that time.

Then last year, I went with the similar arrangement on my living room wall with different pictures.

It was time to change the dining room wall décor.

I knew that Staples prints the engineering prints (the blue prints) in black & white for size upto 36x48. For less than $10. But it never occurred to me that I could get a photo printed (black & white) from them. Not till I saw in the blogland where few of the blogger's had been sharing their projects. Again, I stored the idea of black & white poster print somewhere in the teeny tiny brain of mine.

Painting a frame on the wall and the Staples black & white print! A moment to pat myself on my back. I searched online to see if anyone had done something similar. No one!!!! High five!

Took me few days to scan through our albums to find the photo that I wanted to print.

These below pictures were clicked at the Carmel beach when Sanjan was 5 years old. Mr. and I, liked all these pictures.

Here, he started to write his name in the sand.

And was waiting for the waves to wipe away what 2 letters he wrote.

We selected this one to print. I Photoshopped it a little, changed this color image to black & white.

And got it printed to size 36x48 for $7.29. When I went to Staples, the printer was out of toner. They asked me to pick it the next day. Mr. Tweaks picked the print the next morning.
Later, we went to Lowe's to pick the paint. We wanted to go with coral shade so the colors from living room flows to the dining room.

It took few minutes to decide since "Cherry on Top" was little towards red and "Tangerine" was almost coral. We selected "Cherry on Top". Surprisingly, the color was a perfect match to the lamp in the living room.
I handed the swatch and ordered the Valspar sample bottle. 

I had plans to get this project done during the long weekend in February. Of course, it did not happen. So, the following Saturday morning, I got to work. This is how it went:

Measured and marked the center of the wall.

Drew a straight line in the center.

From the center, marked 24inches on the left and 24inches on the right.

Similarly, 18inches to the top and 18inches to the bottom.

Drew the first inner border around the lines.

-3.5"-			-3.5"-
		18"
	-------------------24"-------------------------	-------------------24"-------------------------

Then drew the outer border 3.5" wide around the inner border.

You guys still here?  

I used the leveler with the ruler while measuring and drawing.

This is how it looked after all the errors and corrections.

I luckily had enough painter's tape for this. I taped around the outer lines of the border, both the inner and outer border.

Using the wall paint color (left over when we got the paint work done), I sealed the tape to avoid the bleeding of the coral color. Also touched up all the pencil markings on the wall, while I was at it.

This is how it looks when you seal the tape with the base coat.

After 2 coats of the coral paint between the tapes.

I let it dry for just few mintues and then started peeling of the tape from one corner.

I went very slow at it making sure the paint from the tape was not getting on the wall.

Bleeding did happen, since it is a textured wall. But it was very few. Here:

And here:

I picked this paint brush from Sanjan's paint box and went about covering the coral paint with the base coat of the wall paint.

I bought 3M command strips at Michaels. These are meant for posters. Yes, I know you can see that....

I spread out the print on the table, and stuck 4 strips at the 4 corner's. Mr. advised I add one more in the center of all the four sides.

You peel the red backing and stick it to the poster and you remove the black backing when you stick it to the wall.

At this point, I was getting very excited to see how it was coming along. Mr. Tweaks was helping me hang the poster on the wall. We hung on the left side first and then to the right.

But something was not right...

There was some gap between the poster and the painted frame. Mr. said, it was fine since the gap is not very visible.
And the tears rolled. I blamed him for not checking if the poster was printed correctly. Since I was so sure that there was nothing wrong with my painted frame which had the correct measurement.

And then I noticed that the poster had a white line on the butt back of Sanjan. Tears would not stop. Mr. Tweaks very carefully said that he found out what went wrong. I was so hoping it was not with my work.

Oh, darn it! It was my paint job. The width on the left side frame was 2.8 inches instead of 3.5 inches.

Yes, I did apologize...very nicely.

Mr. Tweaks suggested that we could paint the frame a little more wider than 3.5 inches so be safe. I taped only the inner border once again and painted an almost 4.5 inches wider frame.

Mr. Tweaks offered to pick another print from Staples since it would not be easy to hang the poster back on the wall with the strips.

This time, I Photoshopped the picture with a wider border in white and darkened the black's.
And this time, the guy at Staples printed it for free!! 

I did not use the 3M command strips this time. Instead, used white thumbtacks which is not very visible.

Thumbtacks are only on the sides of the poster. I did not pin it on the top and bottom of the poster. On the sides, they are pinned 7 inches apart so 6 thumbtacks on each side.

Going with a wider frame on the wall and the wider white border on the poster was a good call.

The paint is showing as orange but it's true coral color.

Some more pictures.

This is how it looks when you enter the foyer.

And as you enter into the living room.

When you walk up the stairs.

I confess, I was giddy with excitement that everything turned out the way I wanted.

The frame here shows orange, but it is not.

How much did I spend for this project:
Print at Staples: $7.29
Paint sample: $2.50 (I do not remember the exact amt)
Tumbtacks: $1.20
Painter's tape: I had it.
Brush: I had it.
3M Command Strips: $2 (after using 40% off coupon)

Most of the projects that I share with you all, are the one's that are done months ago. But this one, I completed last weekend. I so much wanted to have this post out on Sunday evening but could not.

Thank you for stopping by.




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