Cheap DIY Art for the Dining Room

I saw this idea years ago and have had is squirreled away in the recesses of my mind waiting for a chance to use it. Finally, I've come up with the perfect spot! Basic materials you need are a picture frame or two, some backing fabric, some silverware, and a glue gun. My frames are antiques that belonged to my grandmother, but more modern frames would work too. My original idea for background fabric was velvet, but Joann's did not have the taupe I was looking for. I wandered around the store for awhile trying to come up with something else, when I stumbled upon burlap in the back corner (talk about your 180-degree turns - velvet, burlap, velvet, burlap). It was cheap (about $3/yard I think and I only needed 1/2 yard), the color I wanted, and I thought would look great. A nice patterned fabric would also probably work too or a tone on tone texture). The silverware is a mix of my baby fork and spoon and some thrift store purchases - it is all silver plated, the forks I researched when I bought and I think they are 19th century.





I removed the glass and the prints from my frames and wrapped the wooden backings in the burlap. The wood was pretty fragile so I just used some painters tape to hold it so I wouldn't stress it, if you're working with a sturdier frame, hot glue or staples would probably do the trick. Once I had my backgrounds back in the frame and taped down, I just hot glued the silverware to the fabric. This should make it pretty easy to remove when the silver needs to be polished. I hung my new art one on top of the other and voila! Instant, easy, and cheap artwork.

Along similar lines, Real Simple just featured this jewelry display, which I also really like. In this case, pieces are just pinned to a backing, which is probably some sort of foam core or homosote under the fabric, and the display can change daily as you add and remove different pieces. I'll have to keep my eyes open for a large frame to pull something like this off.