DIY-Turn An Old Salvaged Window Into A Picture Frame

You might remember seeing this old window in the post I wrote about a little makeover we did in our garage a few months ago.  Here, you see the opposite side, which is yellow.  But the other side is white.  This window was given to be by a good friend who lives in a lovely old house, and they replaced the windows, so I was lucky enough to get one of the old ones.  It sat here in the garage for a few weeks while I tried to decide how to use it.  I was trying to decide what to give my husband for our 10th wedding anniversary, and the thought came to me that I could use this window as a frame for one of our wedding pictures.  He is a sentimental guy, and he didn’t want me to spend any money on him, so I knew this was something that he would love!

Blowing up a picture into an engineering print size is so easy!  I have done it a few times with free printables, like this one I used as part of my Christmas Decor, but this was my first time using a photograph.  Did you know that you can order engineering sized Prints from Staples online, and pick them up at your local store?  And mine are usually ready on the same day I order them.

I simply chose one of our wedding photographs straight from our wedding album.  I then scanned it and saved it onto my computer.  The picture I was using was in full color, and I wanted a black and white photograph.  So I simply edited the photo I had saved in PicMonkey and changed it to a black and white photo.  Next, I went to the Staples website and ordered the photo I edited in Picmonkey as an engineering print from Staples.  There is an option to have the engineering print mounted on to a foam board, but I didn’t want to spend the extra money on that when I knew I could mount it myself. So when I went to Staples to pick up my finished print, I bought a piece of foam board that was large enough to mount the photo to.

For my particular project, this part was a little more complicated, because my window has 9 window panes.  The tricky part was how to position the photo so that you could see both of our faces through the window panes, so it took a little bit of adjusting to find the right position.  My engineering print was larger than my window, so I had some room to adjust it around.  I first placed the engineering print down on the floor, and then I placed the window on top of the print and moved it around until I liked where it was in the window panes.  I knew this would be hung on the wall, so I left the top part of the window uncovered by the engineering print and foam board, so that I could use the wood of the frame to hang it.  After I had the print adjusted where I wanted it, I traced around the outside of the frame with a pencil, and then cut it out with a pair of scissors.

After I had the engineering print cut to size, I layed it down onto the foam board and traced around the edge that I was going to cut off with a pencil.  Next, I used my utility knife to cut the foam board to size.  Be careful to cut through only the top side of the foam board at first, and then turn it over, and cut the opposite side.  Lastly, I used double sided tape to mount the engineering print tot he foam board.  I just taped it down all along the edges of all four sides.

The next thing I needed to do was to attach the foam board with the engineering print to the back side of the window.  I use Command strips around the edges to mount the board to the wooden frame. Remember, I left the top part of the window empty so that I could use the wood to mount it to the wall.

This window frame is very large, as you can see in the pictures.  I knew I needed to mount it to studs in the wall, and that makes it hard sometimes to hang something exactly where you want it.  French cleats are wonderful when it comes to heavy items that need attached to studs, because you can attach the cleats to studs, and then you can adjust the picture back and fort to center it where you want it.  If you have never seen a french cleat before, this is what they look like.  And you can purchase them to hold various weights.  They even come with a tiny level to use when mounting.  One of these will be screwed to the back of the frame, and the other will be screwed into the wall studs.  You can then easily slide and adjust the picture to where you want it.

When I gave the finished project to LC for our anniversary, I got just the reaction I wanted!  He loved it and thought it was a wonderful gift!  So I considered my efforts a success.  I knew all along that this would go over our bed because that is the one room in our home that is just for us, so I thought this was the perfect location for it.

I just love the way this project turned out, and I still smile every time I look at it.  After all, it was one of the happiest days- our wedding day, and what better place to be reminded of that special day than to hang a picture over our place of rest.  It really makes the room feel like us to have something so personal as this hanging over our bed.  I hope you enjoyed this post today.  Do you love old salvaged windows as much as I do?  Have used used them in your decor, and if so, how did you use yours?  I would love to hear all about it in the comments.  I love your comments and read every one!  Have a great Tuesday!