You Want How Much For That?!?!

We have a wall in our lounge room which is blank, and its blank because we've never really found anything that has jumped out at us to hang there. That was until one day we were having lunch, and then after lunch we went for a wander through some of the nearby shops. Now I'm not a 'shabby chic' kind of male lol Don't get me wrong, I love old stuff! But for me, it has to be the real deal! The last few years there has been a huge trend in decorating your home with shabby chic items, and they're just not my thing.... Maybe because they're usually in pastel colours and to be honest, I find them just a bit girly..... Sorry girls lol

Anyway, I saw some photo frames that were made up of multiple photo frames, that were all connected together like a collage. I really liked them! Part of me was thinking.... "No! It's a type of shabby chic!!! Stay Away" But the other part of me was thinking... "These are amazing!!" lol The reason I was in two minds was because firstly, yes they were a style of shabby chic, but secondly, it wasn't your typical shabby pastel colours. These frames were all different colours, and the colours were bold and bright!!  

I pointed them out to my wife and she also really liked them, then we noticed that the store had about four different styles of these frames. So we had a look at the different styles.... At this point I hadn't really thought about the price.... After all, yes they were nice, but they were also very simple in their design. So fast forwarding..... We decided that one of these frames would look great on our lounge room wall, that was until I discovered that the asking price was $300! Are You Serious?!?!?! It's needless to say that we left without the frames..... 

As we walked out the door I said to my wife, that if I could get my hands on some old timber frames from ebay etc, I could make the same thing for a fraction of the price! Then I had an idea! I'm full of them! lol There was a charity shop around the corner, so I suggested that we go and have a look.... Guess what I found?!? A bunch of new and used timber frames!! Guess how much they cost me? $8!!! Now I'm no mathematician, but $300 - $8 means I saved $292! Some of the frames are raw timber, which is great, the others I will sand back before painting. I have been playing around with layering the frames beside each other and over the top of each other and looking at which frames will compliment each other, as I'm not sure if I will use all of them, or if I will perhaps seek out a couple of different shaped frames for some variety. 

The photo above is a picture of our bar, it was built from recycled timber from multiple Balinese fishing boats, and as you can see it's made up of many small and different brightly coloured panels. This is going to be the style in which I am going to paint the frames. I also don't have to worry about buying the paint in which to paint the frames with, as I already have quite a collection of acrylic paints, which I have used in the past when I've made decorations for Halloween parties. The downside to my many 'brilliant' ideas is that, my to do list is already as long as my arm lol So it may be a little while before this job gets done.