Artful Updates { Part One }

One of the best place to shop for interesting and sometimes original artwork are thrift stores. I'm sure we've all seen our share of craptastic 80's art and fuzzy art posters at thrift stores. However, when you take your time digging though the unwanted and no longer loved art work, you just might find a special piece for your home. Last week I was shopping at my local Salvation Army, hoping to find some thrifty finds. When I saw a bird print that caught my eye, meanwhile Mr. CLH spotted a black and white print that caught his eye. He didn't dig my print, but I loved the print he found! My print was $ 4.99 and the print he liked was $ 4.99 too.  It just so happened we popped into the Salvation Army on a 50% off day for the entire store! We paid only $ 4.99 for both pieces of art work. Bot have nice frames and glass!

When we brought the frames home, I did a quick assessment of the changes we should make to each piece of art work.  First up the bird print. I like the style frame it was in, but knew it would look better a glossy white, that way it would match our existing frames that we have in our house. In addition to painting the frame white, I planned on using caulk to fill in the miter edge, the seam looked wide. I love this bright bird print, but the fake matte and border made the print look so cheap. The only way for the print to standout and look amazing was to buy a new crisp matte.

Up close you can see the miter corners that need help & the tacky fake matter and border that makes the bird print look silly and cheap.

Next up the tree art work my husband found. I'm still shocked he found this & that we only paid

$ 2.50 for it! It's a nice size piece 22inches wide by 19 inches long. We both loved the picture, but thought the mustard yellow matte was taking away from the print and not enhancing it. I also loved the heavy duty well built frame, but knew the color was too dark for our space. Again I knew a white coat of paint would be bring new life to the frame.

Another plus, is the tree art had been previously custom framed, talk about a score we got.

Because both framed are in good condition { minus } there color, I knew the only extra cost to the art update since we hoard white glossy spray paint in the garage would be mattes. Since both pieces of artwork are old size and not stock matte sizes, I knew I would have to order custom mattes. That's just what I did, I stop into Michael's framing department and placed an order for two custom mattes. I've always feared getting custom anything related to framing, because custom framing is expense!

After I came home from Michael's. I began the task of removing the paper backing on each frame along with the old hanging wires. The bird frame, had a really nasty backing on it full of funky stains.

I carefully removed each picture from the frames. Under the paper backing on the tree picture, I found a stamp saying Cresent. More than likely its Cresent City, California. I've been there once its very pretty. The city is right on the ocean and is almost on the California / Oregon border. I'm guessing the picture was taken in Cresent City of maybe even in the Redwoods { which are amazing!}

Next, Mr. CLH will be spraying painting the frames and hopefully our custom mattes will be ready for pickup tonight. I'll have a budget breakdown in part two.

What do you think of the thrifty art we bought? Have you found art artwork from a thrift store that was fab or needed a little artfull update?

PS: Don't forget to enter the CLH Giveaway: For your chance to a Win a print from

 Our Humble A { bowe } d! Click Here to Enter.