My tears are officially dry from last week, and I’ve started to really have some fun designing my kid’s bedrooms. They’ve both had requests, but my son especially has been very particular about only wanting soccer stuff. And let me tell you, there aren’t that many cute options out there, okay? So naturally, I ran to Goodwill, and below are 3 creative ways to use thrifted frames that are not only easy, but totally budget friendly and fun!
*This post contains affiliate links. That means if you purchase something through my link, while it’s the same cost to you, I get a small commission for me and my family.
1. Frame an old sheet
Ok full disclosure, we don’t use top sheets in our home. I know, I know, this can be quite the controversial topic, but we just don’t. So I had a top sheet left over from the soccer sheets I got my son. However, top sheet user or not, you can use this on any old sheets that you don’t plan on using. I thought this was such a creative way to use a thrifted frame, AND bonus, no need for glass.
So this was the thrifted frame I got from Goodwill.
The first thing I did was flip it over and remove the backing. You can use whatever tool you want, but I have this pack of jewelry pliers that I use all the time for frames. They’re much thinner than regular pliers, and fit in nicely under whatever hardware is on the back.
I love getting thrifted frames with mats, just be careful when removing the existing art. I pull it away slowly with my hands and it usually comes off pretty easy.
Next, remove the glass, and put the mat back down without the art. (You can keep the glass if you want, but when it’s not fine art, I like to remove the glass and avoid that ugly glare)
Next, I used some scissors to cut the sheet and then I wrapped it around the board that had the existing art. You can use glue if you want, but I ended up using scotch tape because it was faster and did the job. Make sure you pull the sheet tight enough so there aren’t any wrinkles.
Last thing I do is push the hardware back in to secure the art. Depending on how soft it is, I can either use my hand or the pliers again.
And voila! You’re done. Not too shabby for a $4 thrifted Goodwill frame, eh?
2. Turn a framed canvass into a pinboard
Thrift stores usually have quite a few framed canvasses, but if you don’t see any on your first trip, remember these pointers from my old blog post. I got these from Goodwill a month or so ago. I could’ve purchased a pinboard already made, but this was a lot cheaper, and it was a creative way to use a thrifted frame to personalize something for my son.
First thing I did was tape off the sides. Then I took a small roller brush to paint the canvass. This is wall paint that I had leftover from my office. You can choose whatever color you want, I’ve used white wall paint before. However, my son’s favorite soccer team had black and gold colors so I wanted the base to be black.
Then I used a tiny paint brush to fill in the sides that the roller didn’t get.
You can totally stop here, but since my son wanted gold and black colors, I added some gold. It also gave the board some nice texture. If you’re interested, I linked the gold paint here. All I did was squeeze a bunch of lines like this..
And then blended it with the same roller I used for the black paint.
And that’s it, you’re done! I ordered some patches from his favorite soccer teams and added them with clear push pins.
3. Frame reading + coloring books
I had a bunch of beautiful Goodwill frames that I still wanted to put to good use. And using pages from books is such a creative way to use thrifted frames–coloring books too! I’ll skip the instructions on how I took the frames apart since I explained it above. The process is pretty simple, I like to use the mat as a guide to know where to cut like this… (and if there’s no mat, I use the backing of the frame as a guide).
And then you frame it like this. I always remove the glass because I hate the glare. (if I was using fine art, I’d invest in non-glare glass)
And just a tip, if you’re not crazy about the frame color, you can always spray paint it. You can do black, white, or any color you want. I used this gold spray paint to tone down the orange in the wood color. See the difference below? Just a subtle tweak makes a huge difference. I’m linking that spray paint here.
I love how they all turned out.
4. Framing a Jersey/T-Shirt
There are two ways to do this: one with a canvass, and one with cardboard. Details in this blog post here.
And if you missed the full reveal of my son’s soccer bedroom, click HERE.
Feedback? Comment below.
Love this tutorial!
Yay thank you!
Your so crafty! Love it!
You do such fun things with your Goodwill finds! Love it!