Reclaimed Wood Window Frame Tutorial

I finished my window frame project! This was so much fun to do! My family has a place out at the lake and well, we desperately need to have some artwork on the walls. I thought this would be a great project to try to fill our walls with a bit of color.

To get started, of course I had to find my window frame. I bought this for $20 at an antique store, all the glass was intact so I was thrilled. I've found many frames from houses that have been torn down but so many of them have at least one windowpane smashed out. Getting started all I got in addition to my frame was my paint color, some sanding paper, an image that I wanted to use, brushes, painters tape and then some wax to seal the paint.

I got started by cleaning the glass and the frame of any dirt and debris. Trust me, these reclaimed pieces are ALWAYS dirty so get it nice and clean. Sand down any of the rough edges. I didn't do too much of this, just cleaned it up here and there but the rough look was what I liked so I didn't need to be sanded to perfection.
**be careful, if you have a REALLY old frame, it might have lead based paint so take appropriate caution if sanding**



I just did a single light coat of paint to the backside first. You're not going to see this but since you can see a tad bit when hung, I figure I should have the same color on both sides. Then I let it dry for a few hours.



Then I flipped mine over to the front side and sanded just a little bit more hitting some spots I missed the first time and then wiped it all off so it was clean of any dust from sanding.



I put painters tape all through the glass panels and then painted all of the frame my color of choice, apple red! The lakehouse needs a big pop of color so decided to go bold! I let it dry for several hours and then sanded the edges a bit so it looked a little roughed up. After it was dry, I did add a layer of wax over the top just to seal and protect.



Once I was done with that I scanned my image that I wanted to use which was a vintage postcard I found. I loved the image, it sort of said "lake" to me and something I could see hanging on the wall. I scanned it and then had my friend who is an ace at Illustrator size the image to what would fit my frame and then divide the image into 6 equal sections and print.


My openings are larger than what I can print on my ink jet printer (bummer) but thankfully my good friend Cathy has one of those big ole printers that she uses for her work and helped me with getting these printed so I didn't have to schlep to Office Max.

I started by just laying them out on top of the glass just to see if I liked how it looked. Whoops, if you are paying attention, I have the 2 top corners in the wrong spot! I had originally started with another image but the way the 6 squares cut the image up, it didn't look right, this one worked for me. I was super happy!


Happy with the look, I inserted them into their permanent spot on the backside of my frame and here it is. I haven't added my hanging hardware yet but that will come just as soon as I can get to Home Depot.

I think it's going to look just lovely at the lake!! This was so much fun for me to do, so inexpensive and my hubby is happy that the old frame sitting in our garage for months has finally moved off my ever growing project list! Do you have an old photograph you might want to do this to? I can see all kinds of personalized pieces of art.