The Many Lives of a $1 Yard Sale Frame

After my mini laundry room makeover, I realized I needed some kind of message/bulletin board to keep things semi organized. With 4 busy kids I have endless amounts of school papers, appointment reminders, schedules, and artwork that pass through my hands each day. I had this wonderful frame that was sitting unused and I knew it would be perfect with a little tweaking here and there. This trusty one dollar yard sale frame has proved it's worth ten times over. It's had 5 paint jobs, lived in several different rooms, and served each purpose well. I think I definitely got my dollar's worth, don't you think? Let's take a look back on the evolution of this versatile frame!

This is the original frame straight from a yard sale. Lovely, isn't it?

I decided to make a chalkboard out of it, for the first in a series of makeovers. The frame got painted white and distressed and the picture part I flipped over and painted with chalkboard paint. Easy and fun, but in true Amanda fashion, I quickly tired of it and wanted a change.

This time I painted it parakeet green.....and hated it. So I took some turquoise paint and layered it on top.......still hated it. I ended up brushing my favorite color craft paint, Delta Ceramcoat Seafoam, over both layers and LOVED it! I covered the backerboard with a scrap of canvas dropcloth and made a hairbow holder for my girls.

That ended up being a disaster. My two busy little girls could not keep their hands off it and those bows ended up ALL over my house, every.single.day. So.........I tried it as a picture frame/bulletin board. Same thing happened - they wanted to pull those pictures off and carry them around. That didn't work for me either.

So, the frame got put away in a closet and left for dead. But, not for long. A new idea was born and the old frame got revamped once again. This time it became a bulletin board for my new/old laundry room. I used three cork tiles, cut them to fit, and hot glued them in. Not bad for about 10 minutes of work!

I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but my favorite thing about this frame is that you can see all five layers of paint showing through. It is weathered and worn, old and a bit ragged, but perfect for my needs. I LOVE it!

There is zero natural light in my tiny laundry room, so I apologize for the poor picture quality. This is it hung on the back of my laundry room/pantry door. I like that I can see it when I first walk in from the garage, but it is hidden from guests when they come in the front door. With all the papers that cycle through our house on a daily basis, I'm sure this board will come in handy and prove it's worth once again. And I can't wait to see what it's next life will be!