Oak-frame and a historical photograph

The modern cell phone, so useful, and so hard to fix if anything goes wrong. Sigh. Such is the case with the history of this little project. Photos were taken, then the phone decided not to turn back on, and the photos shall remain locked inside for the foreseeable future. Oh well, not everything needs to be recorded for posterity I suppose. You'll just have to imagine that once upon I time I found a dusty botanical print with green matting, intact glass, and a dark oak frame.... and the wheels started turning.

I know woods like wenge and teak are trendy, but I have developed a 'thing' for oak ever since I discovered the finish technique known as cerusing.  Remember this cerused bookshelf and the cerused side table that were stripped, dyed with aniline dye, brushed with shellac, and then finished with liming wax to bring out the texture of the grain?

Bold and beautiful cerused oak bookshelf

Sort of green and weathered cerused finish on side table

Those projects made me look at oak in a new way.  Instead of associating oak with pickled pink 80s faux-tropical furniture or heavy pieces sitting next to overstuffed couches in musty rec room basements I see the potential. Oak is interesting. The grain of oak is beautiful once you decide to see it that way, and vintage solid oak furniture is relatively abundant and affordable to folks on a DIY budget.   

Now that you've been refreshed about the joys of oak and cerusing let me say that I decided not to ceruse this oak picture frame after all.  I had a friend moving into an apartment that needed to be furnished, and I asked her if she wanted the frame, answer = yes.  Her style leans towards natural wood tones, so after having it sanded down to the raw oak I finished it with only clear furniture wax. Specifically I used two coats of Miss Mustard Seed's furniture wax (and no, I'm not being compensated to mention that product, I just like it).  

This style of picture frame had a series of tiny nails pressing all the backing, art, and glass together against the wood frame.  This makes it inconvenient to swap out the framed art, so here it is in an almost-finished-but-without-the-finishing-nails-installed state. Still, you get the picture, such a beaut!

Oak frame, sanded and finished with furniture wax, corner detail

Refinished oak frame, original green mat, new historical photograph

The green matting was part of the original find, and the botanical print is still there in the back, peeking through next to the white edges of the photo mat.  Maybe someday I'll get a new picture of those, for now you'll just have to enjoy the lovely salvaged and refinished frame in its new home.  The entire piece now brings a bit of warmth to the cool tones on the walls and floors in this downtown rental apartment.

Happy freestyling, and don't be afraid to take that thing that you're not sure how to use, offer it to a friend and you just might make their day!