Ikea Hack : a golden frame for pins

This is an Ikea Hack that I made a while ago and hadn’t shared here.

My daughter went to Disneyland Paris on Sunday with her class and the Spanish correspondents. As it was Mother’s Day, she decided to get me a little present there. She brought back some cute key rings and pins.

I thought it was too sad to leave the pins in a drawer and thought about the best way to display them. I thought back to this relief painting I’d made with a plastic Ikea frame and acrylic paint to display a junk car (if you want to see part of my collection of junk toys click here).

As I didn’t offer a tutorial at the time, I thought I’d take a few photos while I was making it. You’ll see, it’s really quite simple.

Material

a frame
gold acrylic paint
Sienna acrylic paint
felt in the color of your choice
featherboard
white undercoat (optional)

Tutorial

When I painted the first frame, I used an undercoat. Since I’m a stickler for least effort (remember the no-sew pencil case haha), I thought I’d give it a try without. If worst came to worst, the paint wouldn’t stick and I’d go back to the undercoat step.

As you can see from the photo, the first coat is very light. When tested with undercoat, the paint clung better and the color was darker. Both work, so it’s up to you to decide which result you want to obtain.

While the paint is drying, prepare the background. Cut the cardboard to the size of the frame background and glue felt to it. I chose red felt to give the frame an even more precious look and to make the pins stand out.

Apply a second coat to the frame. To add depth to the mouldings, use sienna paint. The idea is to put it in the hollows to create shadows. You don’t need to be precise – you can dab it all over.

Don’t wait for the sienna to dry, and apply a fresh coat of gold paint. Use your intuition, depending on the result you want to achieve. I didn’t smooth out the paint to give an antique frame effect.