Gold Leafin' It Up

Trends are so funny. I remember 10 years ago thinking that people who had gold frames in their houses were so out of touch. I was all like "hello, only black frames are cool." Oh how the times change. Now it's all brass and gilded antique frames...I'm loving it. Go figure.

Like I mentioned in this post, I have a lot of different types of frames in my house. My current favorites are these antique gilded frames from flea markets.

A couple of months ago I decided to jump on a collection of bird prints from Etsy. I sat on them for a while because I didn't have frames. I thought they would look really nice in gold frames, but after looking around for a while it occurred to me that new gold frames are too expensive and finding five matching used frames was too hard, so I took matters into my own hands. I got inspired via this photo:

(Source)

The idea behind this photo is that you can use a gold leaf pen to had faux brass corners to a frame. Such a great idea! I liked it so much that I decided to just gold leaf an entire frame. I found some plastic frames in the clearance aisle at Michael's for around $4 each. They were a kind of weird sparkly grey color. I also bought two gold leaf pens. I had no idea how much "ink" it would take to cover all five frames. There is really no skill required to gold leaf a frame. I did it while watching TV and talking to a friend. It took quite a long time to do but I am happy with the result.

I only needed one gold leafing pen after all so I returned the second one. Good thing considering each pen was $7.99! My technique was to do about 1" zig zags to cover the frame. Some of the dark grey frame did show through the gold but I like that look, it gives a little texture. But a second coat with the pen would give it more solid gold color if that's what you are going for. A pretty simple update to clearance frames if I do say so myself. The frames plus the gold leaf pen and the art cost me a grand total of $55. Not bad for a five piece art collection.