DIY Rustic Frames

Hey folks. In my mind this post started like a month ago. You see, I bought these really awesome posters on Amazon for BigE's room. Each one features a different national park, and they are really vibrant and beautiful. I love them so much that I question whether I bought them more for Eli or myself. Either way I needed some frames for them. However they are a pretty irregular size (13x19). Yes, I could find these frames, but they were either crappy or ridiculously expensive. So without settling or paying too much, I decided to build the frames myself. I had access to some beautiful gate wood that I had been waiting to use for the perfect project. So I cut my wood to length at 45 degree angles to make the frames look more professional. Then came the hardest part of the project. I do not have a 45 degree angle clamp so joining these boards together perfectly was a bit of a struggle. I used wood glue, my hands as clamps (sad day), and my porter cable nail gun. Once that part was over I gave the frames a quick sanding without my sander just to make them a little smooth. Now the majority of the work is done, and the rest was really fun.


At this point I knew that I would need something to back the posters, as they are not very thick. I decided to go with some thick, foam poster board from the craft aisle at Target.  I cut the poster board about a quarter inch longer than the posters to be able to staple them into the wood without damaging the posters themselves. Once the poster boards were cut, I taped the posters to them with masking tape so that I could center everything in the frame easily. One each poster was centered, I flipped it over and used a staple gun to attach everything.


Now, the hardware that you choose to hang your frames with it up to you. I used what I had on hand, so that I didn't have to take a trip to Home Depot. That happened to be some simple screw eyes and wire. DONE.

This project took me less than 3 hours to complete. I spent about 5 bucks total if you don't count the actual posters and factor in all of the supplies I had at home already. Pretty preferable over the flimsy, over-priced crap they sell at the store.