DIY Shadow Box Frames
So these past two months have been crazy! We had been working our butts off trying to get ready for our housewarming party. The house looked amazing and the party was so much fun, but the week before alone kicked my butt. One of the main things we wanted to do was to do something on the giant blank wall behind our couch. However, this is also the wall that has our stairs on the other side so it's kind of an awkward shape.
Brad and I went back and forth on what to put there and I finally found shadow box frames on Pinterest. What most people had done was find cheap frames and attach 1x4s. Well if you've ever tried to buy frames you know they can be pricey, especially one with any size on it. So, silly me, said "I can just make frames." Here is what we did:
DIY Shadow Box Frames
Supplies:
-1x4s
-1x6s
-Trim/moulding
-Paint/stain
-Staple Gun with staples
-Nails
-Hammer
-Miter saw
Directions:
1. I HIGHLY recommend laying out what you want with painters tape. This will help you realize what sizes you want for the space. The tape doesn't have to be perfect, just to give you the idea of what you want.
2. Get your measurements and purchase your supplies. We chose to do a few of the frames in 1x6 mainly because we are using one of the frames to hide the HVAC control panel.
3. Cut all of your pieces to your measurements and attach. We cut everything on a 45 degree miter to make all of the corners line up pretty. We attached the 1x4s and 1x6s by staples on the inside and outside first and then nails into the sides to make it strong. The trim pieces were attached with nails. Let me tell you, trying to make sure everything was lined up perfectly was a pain!
4. Once everything is finally attached, it's time to paint/stain. We chose to paint ours white since we had so much trim paint leftover from the builders we were able to do it easy. This was also helpful since most of the trim pieces from Home Depot was already primed, then you can't stain it. We did 2 coats of paint to get it mostly covered, but if you look closely you can still see some of the dark wood grain coming through which looks really neat.
5. Now that everything is dry, it's time to hang up. We both racked our brain trying to think of what we could possibly hang these with. Can't go to the old reliable piano wire because you'd see it in the back of the shadow box and it would look stupid. So, we hung it with the strongest 3M velcro we could find. Brad still didn't trust it and we nailed each strip either into the wall or into the frame to make sure it didn't accidentally slip off.
6. Now that everything is level and hanging on the wall and you're so proud of yourself that you can actually make a box--most of the time. It's time to fill them. What I love about these most is I can change them out whenever I want. Unlike a picture that is stuck there forever, we can change them out seasonally if we want to. They make me smile every time I see them and we got so many compliments and "you made that!?" comments during our housewarming party. It was so easy, if I can do it then so can you.
Price:
Paint=FREE (use what you have, it doesn't take much to make it unique and awesome looking)
Tools=FREE (we are finally getting a collection of tools and not having to buy every little/big thing we need)
Wood=$80 (unfortunately all of the wood we needed is not the cheapest, but it did make 5 frames)
TOTAL=$80 or $16/frame
You could make it cheaper if you already had the wood or already had a frame and just need to put the 1x4 or 1x6 behind it.
What do you think? Any suggestions on how to decorate them during different seasons? It's already changed a few times in the month they have been up. Even Brad has made a few changes to it.