Upcycled Frame

Aside from having a few screw holes, the 1x4s I used when painting the cabinets were like new. After hanging the old bathroom mirror in the living room, I decided to make a frame with the leftover wood.

 I figured I would upholster it or something, so I didn't worry about making the edges meet perfectly. I used basic hardware to hold it together. At this point I remembered some paper sticks I had made but never used. I broke out the hot glue gun and got to work.

The paper sticks were made with magazine pages, rolled up with Elmer's glue from corner to opposite corner. It's easy to do once you get the technique down, but time consuming to create enough for big projects like this one. I also liked to pick pages with interesting edges, because the edge is all you see once it's rolled up. My plan was to glue them on, paint them brown, then rub on black paint that would collect in the grooves. I hoped that when done, it would look similar to the floors. However, once I glued them on I like it so much that I didn't want to paint it.

 

That meant that the style didn't match the rest of the living room, in my opinion, so I later moved it up to the loft.