What to do with an Antique Frame
With our current #StayHome reality, a lot of projects once relegated to the “Someday To Do List” are now getting done – and this is one of them! Years ago, a friend brought me this great antique frame, knowing I like “old things”. This is a beauty. I love it – but it sat in a corner with other odds’n’ends for a long time. Eventually, we moved to a new home. The frame came along with us – carefully shrouded in bubble wrap. And here it has been sitting, unwrapped but unloved, on the floor of my office for two years! My problem was – What should go in it?
Should I re-mount the old portrait of my great grandparents? The one whose frame is looking a little worse for wear – and also happens to be a bilious green? Should I get one of the lovely old family photos enlarged to fit? Shouldn’t something go in it that suits the frame’s era? This ornate frame probably dates from Victorian times.
Let’s take a detour to the cottage. Flashback to when my son was 7 or 8 and I was doing some painting with my acrylics. He asked if he could do a painting too. The result was this piece.
I have always liked its moody deep shades that work so well together (and on that particular day, put my painting to shame).
When a local framing shop went out of business, we bought a stack of remainders and among the items was a double mat that exactly fit Sam’s painting! The inner mat had just the right shade of “merlot” that Sam had captured in his red paint. I had a black iron stand and we displayed Sam’s painting in it, matted but unframed, on a prominent shelf. The stand happened to have the word “Dream” on it – and so it became “Sam’s Dream painting”.
The Cottage Move
Years passed (twenty of them!) and then came The Great Cottage Move. As you can imagine, a whole lot of stuff came from the sold cottage to our home, and one of them was the Dream Painting, which got propped in an office corner – up against the golden antique frame. Wait a minute! Maybe it doesn’t have to be a Victorian print that goes into this frame. Maybe something contemporary will give it more vitality! It was serendipity that the matted painting fits EXACTLY into the antique frame! I didn’t have to trim it in any way. Is it “too new” for this style of frame? I’ll let you decide. I like it. It makes me look at both the frame and the painting with new eyes – and it was just too much of a coincidence to ignore.
Some Other Ideas
I had entertained some other ideas for reusing my antique frame: Use it as a bulletin board by fitting it with a piece of foam-core or thick cardboard, covered in an interesting fabric, or fit it with a piece of cork board. I was going to use it as a place to “post” various family photos rather than one big portrait. For an easy-to-change display, you could create an insert criss-crossed with ribbons to make a ribbon board, and tuck your notes, cards and photos behind the ribbons. And of course there are a great many “crafty” ideas online.
But for now, I am happiest putting new wine into old bottles.
I love the painting and the frame. They work beautifully together. Well done!
Thanks, Marcia!