There are people at auctions that are a little snobbish about box lots—they will only buy the "good stuff" from the ring. Not me! I scour through those boxes and always seem to find gems. Typically you get a whole box or multiple boxes of "stuff" to get the one or two things you wanted. I always go through them boxes I win and see if I can repurpose something. I consider them to be freebies since they were not what I was originally after in the box.
Take this kitchen plaque from the 70s. It has the classic colors of the 70s. I considered trying to sell it as is, but I thought I could ramp it up. Fortunately I had a helper last week and she had some great ideas.
The linen peeled off very easily and revealed a nice piece of wood. My helper suggested we leave the wood instead of painting it. We did paint the frame with Folk Art Sheepskin Chalk Paint and distressed it.
My helper suggested we put an image on the board instead of a saying. Then she found this one of a bird.
We wanted it to look like a block print so we varied the strength of the application of the paint to the stencil.
Making this look like a block print went perfectly with the frame! We inserted the wood back into the frame and attached a picture hanger.
I absolutely loved how this turned out! I think going with a graphic was the perfect solution for this frame.
Take a second look at found objects and see if you can re-envision them into something spectacular!