Skeleton Key Art Project

I have a little project in the works that is allowing me to play decorator (my not-so-secret dream job). My sister-in-law Katie is moving into a new place soon, and graciously accepted my offer to live out my decorator fantasies to help her realize her vision. It will be a while before we have anything to show for our endless back-and-forth e-mails, text messages and shopping trips, but for now, I thought I'd give you a little sneak peek.

Katie loved the idea of somehow incorporating skeleton keys, so we agreed to frame a few for her new room. This is probably one of the easiest little DIY art projects you could do in the world, and it looks so pretty. It's also a creative way to showcase those little objects that might otherwise end up in a drawer or lost on top of an overly decorated desk. So here's how you execute the vision:

Scavenge through antique malls, or eBay or Three Potato Four Shop and order a few skeleton keys. Katie ordered nine from Three Potato Four.

Then, scavenge some more for vintage, antique or thrifted frames. Any color will work, but we chose gold. We bought the frames at thrift stores and consignment shops in Old Town Alexandria and the Del Ray neighborhood.

Finally, hop over to your nearest stationary store and buy some scrapbook paper/wrapping paper. This paper came from Paper-Source. Trace the shape of the glass from your frame onto the back of the paper, and cut out that shape. Voila! You have a background.

We struggled for a bit to figure out how on earth we were going to get those keys to stay in place, before we finally realized -- duh! -- hot glue. The beauty of hot glue is that it will keep them in place, but if Katie ever decides to do something different with the keys, she can just peel the glue off with minimal harm done.

Ta-da. We have three frames with three keys each, all in slightly different arrangements. They look so romantic and it's such a sweet way to harken back to olde timey times while still looking modern.

I can't wait to show you more, but you'll just have to wait and see! In other home project news, I'm going to be picking up a china cabinet off Craigslist this weekend. I've been searching all week for china cabinet make-over inspiration, and I might share some of what I've found on the blog tomorrow.