Vintage frames

Vintage frames can be a very stylish and interesting addition to your interior. There are various options: with a crown, black and white, oval and others. It is important to know how to choose them, as well as how to do it yourself.

Vintage style items are becoming more and more popular. That is why it is stupid to throw away old things, even if they seem inappropriate and ridiculous at times. At the same time, a good visual effect is achieved only if things with an old flavor are skillfully included in the interior. The most important feature of such products is that they should not contain any synthetic materials. Visual uniqueness is also an obligatory requirement, since stereotyped, monotonous-looking objects will definitely not fit into such a style.

The use of unsaturated tones, natural paints is encouraged. To prefer dark or light colors - you have to decide on your own.

Can be found:

• floral ornaments;
• landscape compositions;
• emphatically old portraits;
• images with Japanese motives.

Vintage photo frames can be imitations of the style of different past decades. But at the same time, something that is less than 20 years old cannot be a model. A combination of stylistic moments, say, from the 20s and 70s of the last century is quite acceptable. However, such a combination should be thought out as much as possible, otherwise it sometimes turns out to be terrible bad taste. Imitation of the "roaring twenties" is successful if you demonstrate a "bright celebration of life." The style of the next two decades is much more laconic, including in relation to color.

As for the shape, the most popular are classic square and rectangular products. Their sizes are dictated by the common photo formats:

• 9x12;
• 9x13;
• 10x15;
• 15x20;
• 20x30 cm.

Oval and round frames are not used very often. If desired, you can also make other designs stylized as hearts. Of course, the border is ideally made of natural wood, or at least painted under it. Black and white pictures are inserted inside; only in isolated cases are color images permissible, but it is better to leave this to professional designers. And for lovers of everything original and chic, it is worth choosing frames with a crown - this will allow you to plunge even deeper into bygone eras.

A great option is to take a completely modern frame as a basis and artificially age it. First of all, the surface (not excluding the edges) is coated with white acrylic paint. It is most convenient to whiten with a paint brush. It is not worth striving for a perfectly smooth and even surface. If the texture remains from staining, it will even better fit into the vintage ideal.

In this case, it is imperative to paint all the depressions and bumps, carved and molded parts of the workpiece. The paint should dry naturally, and very well, and only then comes the second stage. On the finished base, a primer is applied for metal (if desired, it is tinted with brown or gray paint). You should not save on the primer. The brush seems to slide, moves easily and does not cover the relief too much.

At the corners, a vintage frame is painted in two or even three layers. This allows you to achieve the maximum realistic coverage. It is advisable to plug the relief with a brush, not forgetting about the ribs. The new layer should also dry completely.

The third stage of work will require again white acrylic, which is applied with a foam rubber sponge on the most noticeable parts of the relief, and then smeared with the back of the sponge.

This completes the preparation in principle. Sometimes a matte varnish is also applied for a more attractive appearance.

It is easy to cut it into the required parts, then glue and paint. Vintage designs made from this material really look like they were created a long time ago.

The combination of flat and concave skirting boards allows you to create voluminous compositions. Some people try to use crackle-effect varnishes (as if cracking) and gold acrylic paint. A very good idea is to place a series of photographs or paintings of the same subject in a self-made frame, observing compositional rules. Sometimes they take craft paper for decoration. Binding cardboard is taken as the basis for its application on the back plane of the photo.

You can see how to make an aged frame in vintage style in the following video.