Mama Had A Baby In A Baby Carriage

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a baby carriage.
Sucking her thumb, peeing her pants, and tryin’ to do the hula dance!

Ah yes, good ol' playground songs.  The carriage I’m referring to today won’t be occupied by any babies any time soon…well, unless you’re Cinderella perhaps.  But I do want to share some new carriage art I made that’s pretty fun and whimsical. Actually, I just jazzed up a sweet find I scored at Restore the other day for $2.50.  Yes, $2.50.  Can you GO wrong?!

I actually picked up three different finds while on my Restore run.  Two framed pictures and a mini glass vase all for $4.50.  You’ll notice the price tags indicate twice as much, but much to my luck, it was 50% off décor that day. I seriously love that place.

All three will be receiving the Anne Special (aka a DIY treatment) to make them a bit more updated and our style.  I mean, I love a bear picnic scene as much as the next guy, buuuut…yeah, I can’t find anything charming to say about that.  Let’s move along, folks.

The one we’re tackling today is the framed picture on the right – the red matted rectangular one.  This picture frame was actually a sweet, sweet mixture of a light oak colored wood with a gold stripe running through it.  The picture doesn’t really accurately depict it, though.  And I wasn’t a fan of the red matting either since we seem to have a more cool color palette going on in most spaces.  (Or at least that’s the direction we’re headed.)  And to be honest, I didn’t even really pay attention to the picture itself since my sole purpose on my Restore trip was for hunting wabbits frames.  That said, what I did notice was the nice shape of the frame.  I was looking for something in the 10x6-ish range to hang vertically in our foyer and this seemed to fit the bill.

But then I got home.  And I took apart the frame and actually looked at the photo which was on really nice quality linen paper.  And I fell in love.  It’s a really charming carriage that is both classical in design with its delicate black ink strokes, yet playful enough for the kids to enjoy.  So the plan changed (as so many often do).
 
I set everything aside except the frame shell and the matting.  And off to the garage we went to begin spray painting.  Here are the shots of the matte and framing getting a fresh coat.  Since the carriage picture was black and cream, I thought it would be fun to bring in some color with the matting.  And I just so happened to have some fun aqua colored spray paint in my stash so that was easy choice of color.

 

Everything ended up needing about three light and even coats of spray paint.  And remember, the key to a nice smooth finish with spray paint is to hold the can about 10-12 inches away from the item and spray light coats.  Coverage will be anything but perfect the first coat (like you can see in my frame shot), but you’re able to do multiple coats a few minutes later.

I let everything dry up overnight and put it all back together and here’s what we ended up with.  I couldn’t be more pleased and can’t wait to get it up on the wall!

Total Project Cost: $7.50
Framed Picture: $2.50
Aqua Spray Paint: $0, already had
White Spray Paint: $5

Has anyone else done a fun DIY art project lately?  I’d LOVE to see/hear all about them.  Have a great weekend!

♥, Anne