Distressed Beach-Style Decor

“There is more to life than increasing its speed.” ~Mohandas K. Gandhi

That quote above is something we take to heart ….or trying to and more so as time goes on. Now that we are living so close to the ocean here in Florida we have slowly been adopting this beach-life even though we wish we ended up at the beach more often. We tend to take for granted what is right in our backyards but trying to change that…

Update: As you can see in the photo above, we change our minds like our underwear, you can see the difference in the green frame below. Plus we added the black frame from another older post – Framed Quote with Natural Mat. We switched the quote for a sand dollar.

We thought, why not include the home décor into that calming lifestyle? You may have read our recent post about our idea to make a wall of photos but we think we already changed our minds. Today it went from family and friends to distressed frames, beach-style… it’s just so damned tranquil and easy.

Okay, enough babbling, this is what we did to make distressed frames – beach-style…  We took some old frames we had in a box for a while – all inexpensive basic black frames. Why do we have so many black frames!? Ugh!

We removed the back of the frame and the glass, then sanded them down to rough up the surface and some extra sanding in random places to expose the wood. After sanding, wipe the dust off with a rag.

We used some acrylic paint (also in a box for a while) and painted a couple of them cool colors – in this case, blue and green. Wait for them to dry a half hour or so before you distress them – then lightly sand until you expose the color and/or the wood underneath. Keep your sanding uneven and don’t forget the edges – keep it random.

Now you have distressed frames.

Two frames were left empty – one of those has a seashell hanging inside with some natural jute twine used to hang it up. The third frame has a piece of paper (both black and white versions above) with colorful feathers from our Love Birds. We just used what we had – no shopping was needed. Besides the color, the shell and the twine (or rope) add to the beach-style. Guess we could have use seagull feathers but eh  …try catching one!

Then we decided to distress an older project, Easy Framed Monogram. They never seemed to find a wall to call home for very long so they also got sanded. We like them better this way.

Our guest bathroom has the beach and tropics feel so we put a couple of the frames in there – photo below.

We didn’t bother with a polyacrylic to protect them but probably would if we were doing this to furniture. Actually it would be much different for furniture. Since it’s just simple accessories we kept it simple!

[Email Subscribe]

Follow Us