Adding a Graphic Touch to Framed Art

Does anyone remember Rosemary?  To refresh, Rosemary is the buffet in the above image.  As you can see she is topped with a white cabinet.  I do not love the cabinet, and find it to be a little top heavy for this buffet.  If someone would take it off my hands that would be great, but until then...

To pull the two together, I decided to paint them both in the same shade of gray.  After looking into what seemed like hundreds of grays I decided on BM-Pewter.  Last week, I began painting and finally finished over the weekend.  The image above is of the newly painted pieces.  Also, to make the hardware look uniform, I used Rubb & Buff on the pieces that weren't already brass.  Can you tell which ones?  We have a piece of black granite that would be a nice addition to the top of the buffet and would bring some visual balance to the two.  I think?  Anyway, I am showing you this because the art looks so bland here.  I really wanted something that would pop and I preferred that it be a "free" project.

I went online and printed botanical images of colorful leaves.  I usually print onto card stock, but this time I printed onto copier paper.  I really needed some sort of mat for the art and considered making this ribbon mat.  Then I remembered how Jenny painted the border around prints to bridge the gap between the mat and image.  This gave me the idea to use thin ribbon and apply it with glue where the copier paper and card stock meet.  (Sorry about the blurry pictures, my battery was dying).

Here is the result with a fresh coat of glossy white on the bamboo frames and the new art.  I really like the graphic punch it gives.  The best part is that I already had the supplies that I needed.