So, I walked into Goodwill

So, a couple of weeks ago Trey and I went to our local Goodwill. Sometimes I just want to look around and see what cool things I can find. I had a few bucks so I was ready.

I love the housewares area the most and then the furniture and then the clothes. The housewares has the most variety of stuff. If you don't go then here's what you do, or at least what I do. I look through everything. Sometimes you find stuff that's good just the way it is but a lot of times you have to look at something and see it from a different perspective. You can't judge something by it's color, because almost everything can be painted! And forget it's original purpose, some stuff can be used in a totally different way (and get painted) for a whole new life.

So, I found a couple of small things but I was really on the look out for a large frame (more on why later). I was looking through the bin that had some large pictures and pulled out this mountain scape painting. And I mean painting, like on a canvas and it was framed in this wood frame. I didn't think the frame was big enough for what I wanted so I put it back. But then remembered that David loves the mountains lately so I texted him a pic of it to see if he wanted it. I didn't think he would but I thought I'd check. Turns out he loved it! So, for $10 (not counting the discount) I brought it home.

Ok, so I wanted a frame because I wanted to make a chalkboard for our kitchen/dinning room. We have this awkward little hallway that connects our connected kitchen and dinning room (I know it sounds crazy but that's what it is). Anyway, I wanted to find a big old frame that I could paint and turn into a chalkboard. I didn't want to pay much for the frame so I kept looking at Goodwill. Oh and it needed to be chunky, I didn't care what finish it had because I was going to paint it.

So I hung the newly found painting frame on the wall to see if it was the right size (we want to re frame the painting, the frame is ugly) and it was! I was so HAPPY! For less than $5 (it was $10 but David got the painting and I got the frame, so it's split) I got a big frame that I'd have paid more than $20 for at like Hobby Lobby. I also had this bare wood 12x12 frame from HL ($5 thanks to 50% off) and I wanted to put it in the kitchen too.

Here's a close up of the frame. I like the chunkiness of it and a little white linen border.

So, I needed to prime them since I was painting them white and one was bare wood and the other a dark wood. I had some Kilz in a spray can so I used that. It's so much faster and easier. I didn't tape off the linen border because I didn't care whether it stayed the same or not.

The linen border basically stayed the same, it didn't look painted. So I brushed on the white and then used a stiff brush to clean up the linen boarder. Then hung them up in the kitchen! The chalkboard frame isn't completed yet but I hung the frame anyway. I'll share how that goes when I get it done.

I don't have any specific plans for this frame right now, so I just put a piece of scrapbook paper in it that I'm using as color inspiration for the kitchen/dinning room.

Here's a close up of the finished frame with linen border.

Here's the frame hung in it's new spot in the crazy little hallway.
I'm hoping to get the chalkboard part done soon and then I can share it with all of you!

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