Creative New Uses for Old Frames

I had a customer in the other day who works in a framing shop, and she told me that she will never look at framed prints and pictures the same way again!  She has a renewed interest in just the frames - and not particularly the pictures in them.  After you read this blog, you will have a new interest in frames!

One creative use for old frames is to take out the picture and insert vintage photographs, wedding invitations, special greeting cards, your Grandmother's hand crocheted or tatted doilies, old music, old decorative hankies, or whatever strikes your fancy.  Place them on a background of fabric that matches your room or even wallpaper or wrapping paper.  These can either be fixed to hang on your wall just like you would a picture - or you can purchase two handles at your hardware store and mount them on the ends of the frame, and you will have a beautiful tray on which to serve your next cup of tea.

These look so pretty just sitting on your coffee or side table for a place to sit your coffee or tea when you are relaxing to read a book and sip your tea!  Another way to make your tray even more special is to purchase little decorative brass or wooden legs and affix them to the bottom of the corners.  The ideas are limitless and are guaranteed to make you never look at antique framed pictures in the same way ever again.  Also, this would be a perfect, one of a kind, gift idea!

Another great idea is to hang an empty frame on the wall and inside it hang a smaller picture or even a pretty vintage plate!  If the frames are damaged when you find them (and many of them are in antique stores), just paint them in whatever color you want, or paint them white and then sand lightly to give the cottage or shabby chic look.  If you are looking for the perfect mirror for your bathroom and just can't find it - check out your local antique store for old framed prints and take the frame and get a mirror placed in it. 

I promise you that you will never look at pictures at antique shops, garage sales, or flea markets in the same way again.  What's Old can be New Again!