DIY distressed photo frame

Beginning of this year, S and I attended an Annie Sloan workshop hosted by Home & Pantry in Angel, London. We've been fascinated by the whole distressing effect on surfaces and was on the look out for an affordable workshop which gave us a basic insight into the various techniques. It was a day long session and we absolutely enjoyed it to say the least. we were taught 6 different techniques and then given a project at the end of it to create our masterpiece.

We both picked up an Annie Sloan starter kit and i couldn't wait to put it to use. I decided to transform this old photo frame into a show piece and eventually add some vintage hooks at the base to use it as a coat hanger of sorts at the entry way. At that point I was sort of obsessed with block printing on any fabric and didn't spare this either. I used a wooden stencilling block and fabric paint stamp the paisley prints and then stapled the fabric on to the wooden frame. It took me an hour start to finish and I'm rather proud of how it turned out.

Things I used:

Old frame

Paint brush

Aubusson blue chalk paint by Annie Sloan

Soft clear wax (for furniture and walls)

Wax brush or an old piece of cloth

Old white chalk paint by Annie Sloan

Sand paper- lowest grade

I started by painting the entire frame with Aubusson blue, rather roughly. It doesn't need to be clean straight lines of paint in one direction. Just make sure all the areas are equally covered.

Leave aside to dry completely, or if like me you don't have the patience, use a hair drier to fasten the process. Annie Sloan chalk paint is rather easy to dry and even if left aside, if you haven't gone a bit crazy thickening the surface with paint, it would dry in a matter of 10 to 15 minutes.

Paint another layer with the old white chalk paint, this time focussing on making it smoother. Leave to dry completely.

Once the paint has dried, rub in a layer of wax on to the frame. The paint gets a bit darker and that's fine. Make sure you get into the nooks and crannies and cover the entire surface and sides of the frame. I used a wax brush for this but you can use a piece of cloth instead. 

Now using the sand paper gently rub at the edges and corners, where you want the Aubussion blue paint to come through. Don't over do this, or else it would look forced, and not naturally weathered. 

Put in your favourite picture and voila, you have a beautiful distressed photo frame.

PS: You can of course use any colour of choice. Try and use contrasting colours if you want them to stand out in an obvious sort of way. I love the blue and white combo and hence went for it.

N