{DIY} framed music sheets

Last June M and I finally started the process of re-doing our master bath. We live in a house that was build in the 1950s, we bought it from the original owner's children (after they passed), and nothing had been updated when we moved in 5 years ago. Before we moved in, we did a couple of little remodel things like painting the paneling and kitchen cabinets, new appliances and backsplash, and--oh yeah--knocking a big hole in the wall between the kitchen and living room. All of that we did ourselves. Since then we've remodeled the already-converted garage from a workroom/MIL-suite to a giant game room, painted more unfortunate colored wood, taken down wallpaper, and re-tiled after a slab leak.

I am far from an interior decorator, but I love reading DIY home make over blogs and seeing transformed rooms! So, when M finally gave me the go-ahead to set up a contractor for dark, dingy, moldy bathroom, I nearly burst into tears with excitement! I made an olio-type board on photoshop, sent it to the contractor (who by-the-way thinks I'm crazy), and a 3-month long (supposed to be 3-week long) project came to life. I was in love. 

Then I got the itch to re-do other rooms. I don't have a giant budget, or even mediocre sized one. Really, it's just whatever I can skim off the monthly budget before I get in trouble for spending too much. That hasn't happened yet, so I guess I'm still going strong. :)

I started with our bedroom, since it was right off of the master bath. I taught myself how to do drywall repairs and texturing to fix our million cracks, re-caulked some of the baseboards and windowsill since they were cracking, painted the yellowing trim, and then got super bold and painted the whole room navy. Ha! My sweet husband, who generally doesn't have strong opinions, just said, "Whatever you want, honey." Hahaha. Still makes me laugh.

So, after all of that, my spending is becoming a little more noticeable and I was really wanting something new above our bed. I found this on pinterest, and LOVED it. Then I decided I wanted something bigger above our giant king-sized bed, like this. So, I decided to combine them. Instead of using our wedding song, our music sheets are for "How Great Thou Art", a song we sung at our wedding. Here they are (sorry about the crummy iPhone pictures):

I pretty much love them! In case you like it, and want to do something similar, here's how I made it:

Supplies:

3 16x20 poster frames from Target

1 can of Valspar metallic spray paint in bronze from Lowe's

3-5 white poster boards (depending on if you mess up 2 like I did)

ruler

pencil

exacto knife

sheet music

tape

First, I spray painted the frames with 2 coats of paint outdoors.

While, the paint is drying, you can cut the poster board for the "mat". First cut the poster board down to the 16x20 size. Line up your ruler, or yard stick, on the inside of where you want to cut and use that as a guide for your exacto knife. Then comes the harder part, and here's an example:

Find the middle of the 16x20 poster board, and draw a rectangle for an 8x10 opening. When you place your ruler, be sure to put it on the outside of this square. That way, if you stray a bit, it's easier to fix.

My sheet music was a little smaller than 8x10, so I scanned it, blew it up in photoshop, and erased the words. Then I printed on white 60lb card stock. 

To "age" it a bit, I painted it with a tea bag to get the gold-ish color. You can see in this close-up that the ink smeared a bit and the paper is a little wrinkled. I liked it that way.

I really love them, the only think I might have done differently is invested in nicer frames. Since this just a poster frame, the plastic reflects light a lot more. A real glass would have less of a glare.

All in all, this project was about $28 ($5.99 per frame, $5.98 for the spray paint, $2 for the sheet music, and $4 for the 8 pack of poster board). I'd say they look pretty darn good for that price!