How to Distress | Age | Antique a picture frame

I love the antique look of an aged picture frame. So I decided to take the project on, and make one myself.

It turns out, there are a few different ways to do it and a few different ways to say it: i.e. aging a picture frame, antiquing a picture frame, distressing a picture frame, making a picture frame look old.

Some use paint, wax and sandpaper. Some use paint, wax and steel wool. Some use paint and shoe polish. Some use paint, an old rag and a kitchen knife. Different techniques equal different results. Check them out before deciding on the look you want.

Through the maze of terms and techniques, I settled on a mix of my own because I had already painted my frames, so I was a little more limited.

Here are some of my Thrifty Finds' before's:

#1: Thrift store find: Framed French Bicycle Picture

#2: Estate sale find: Metal frames

#3: Thrift Store Find: Rectangular mirror

Step 1: Primer

We sprayed everything with primer to cover the previous color, and let it dry.

Next, we sprayed the top coat and let it dry. I chose a bright turquoise-ish sea blue. It looks a little more like robin's egg blue when it's dry.

We brought them home to dry thoroughly....where they sat for a week because I was too afraid I'd ruin them trying to antique them, if you want to know the truth. And then one day all of a sudden I figured if I ruined them I could always paint them again. And I got to work!

I used a block of wood covered with a piece of sand paper and started sanding spots on my beautifully painted frame. Yikes!

But behold, it worked!

The key to this look was the fact that the frame was originally painted black. When I sanded, I went through the blue, and the primer, which took me back to the original black.

Woohoo! Now I was more confident. I dare you to take away my sandpaper!

More block sanding for the mirror frame, but this time I also wiped it with black shoe polish.

Here it is after wiping it with black shoe polish.

Last project of the day, the metal frames.

First, I wiped black shoe polish on the frame, let it dry, and wiped off the excess polish.

But it just looked dirty, not antiqued. (sorry for the blurry picture)

So I pulled out my sandpaper (see how daring I'd become?) and roughed it up a bit, which gave it the perfect antique feel.

I love how they all turned out! Don't be afraid to try antiquing / distressing / aging your picture frames. If I can do it, you can do it. Especially if you find them at thrifty prices - less pressure! :)

Good luck!

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