Trash to treasure: a gorgeous junky picture frame

This little project is actually not finished. But I love it so much, I just have to share it! 

In 2008, our home on Des Moines' north side was destroyed in flooding. The city purchased the house and property from us shortly afterwards, and demolished it. In the few years since, we've occasionally driven past the site. Sometimes, we get out of the car and walk around - I'm not entirely sure why, but it seems to bring a little comfort at times when we get to reminiscing about the loss. 
On one such visit, we noted that someone had dumped a truckload of junk in our old backyard. This little cupboard door was calling my name, and I plucked it from the middle of the pile to study it. 

I absolutely love the worn texture - it reminds me of linen fabric or linen-finish paper. 

I knew for sure I wanted to make some sort of picture frame, but I didn't have any particular shots in mind when I first picked the little door out of the junk pile. It wasn't until we saw Stephanie's beautiful senior pictures (taken by Des Moines photographer Randy Shebek) that I knew I had just the right images to complement this frame. 

(all photos of Stephanie are by Randy Shebek, Great Life Photography)

Mr. Piglet helped me repair the cupboard door - I nailed the frame pieces back together and he glued and clamped them to make sure they would stay in place. He dug through his own stash to find a couple of nails that looked appropriately weathered - "You don't want new nails in there, they'll look out of place," he said. (I LOVE that he had the same vision for this project!)  

Once it was all dry,  I selected two 5x7 pictures - one with a very distinctive natural element, the stone, to complement the textured wood, and one with some color in the background to draw attention. 

I added a piece of vintage lace in one corner as a background element, and created depth by stacking two pieces of foam core board, smaller than the right-hand photograph, and attaching that photo to the "riser" created by the foam core. Note the shadow cast by the "raised" picture, in the photo below.

To finish, I am on the hunt for a used Scrabble game so I can spell out either Steph's name or a word or two to describe her with the tiles. And I'm still thinking about what, if anything, belongs in that lower left corner. I'll post a follow up when I finally get it complete, but it's already one of my new favorite pieces in the house because it uses three of my favorite elements: weathered junk, bits of vintage finery, and my amazing daughter! 

I'm linking my junky picture frame to Donna's fabulous Saturday Night Special Party at Funky Junk Interiors. So much beautiful junk, so little time!