{First Ever} Tutorial- Pottery Barn Inspired Gilt Frame Card Holder

When I saw the Gilt Frame Card Holder, I instantly fell in love. It makes me so happy at Christmas time to get cards from all of our friends and family. I despise clutter (especially paper clutter) and so this looked like the perfect alternative for a creative way to display holiday sentiments without “junking up” the house.
One look at the price and I knew that with a husband in school, if I wanted the Gilt Frame Card Holder, I was going to have to make it. And it was actually quite simple. Follow along with my scattered ramblings, and I will do my best to walk you through how to create one of your own.

Here is our inspiration, the Gilt Frame Card Holder from Pottery Barn ($159):

It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?

I began my project with a trip to Hobby Lobby to pick out a frame. I intended to get a really ornate gold frame (a tiny part of me still wishes I did), but for some reason, this one really caught my eye, so I went with it.

It is a simple black and red braided looking frame. It is for a 24x36 picture and only cost $35. I loved the texture but not so much the color, so I decided to use some left over milk paint and make it the same sea green color as my coffee table (beneath the frame).

*If you already have a frame that you love and don’t need to make any changes to it, skip to Part 2.

Part 1: The Frame
I took it out into the garage to sand it and get it ready for painting and (unfortunately) it had a think resin coating and the underneath was turning out an ugly grey. This picture doesn’t do much justice so you’ll just have to trust me…


I continued sanding the frame until it felt rough enough to paint (where I could feel texture). And as a precautionary method, since I have not painted resin before and didn’t know how well my paint would stick to it, I wiped it down with some TSP solution from Lowe’s. This stuff seemed to do the trick because when I painted it, it worked wonderfully. (Be sure to wear gloves when using it though, it’s kind of potent.)
 

I then painted my frame with sea green milk paint. The original idea was to get the paint to chip off like the paint in the Pottery Barn picture, but the ugly gray under-layer wasn’t worth seeing (I should have gotten a solid wood frame). So I did two thin coats (so it wouldn’t flake) of the milk paint.


I like to mix my milk paint in a mason jar. Shake, shake, shake.


After two coats of milk paint:
 

(As a side note, have you ever used milk paint? It comes in a powder form and you mix it with water. It is completely non-toxic and so easy to use. It creates a beautiful milky finish and depending on how thick you mix it, you can get it to flake off a little or a lot (reference my coffee table in the first photo). I love the stuff! For more info, read about it on their website.)

Ok, so back to the tutorial… I wanted to bring out the dimensional elements of the frame and make it look more antiqued. Since distressing was not an option (dang resin), I dipped a shop cloth in some antiquing glaze and had at it. I love this stuff because it is so easy to manipulate and get just how you want. Beware, a little bit goes a LONG way. I like that it is so much more forgiving than stain! And it’s cheap. Mine was left over from my kitchen cabinets, but it’s like $8 at Lowe’s. Here’s what it looks like (I apologize for the bad quality photo):


And voila! it’s glazed. Reference final photos for the results.
Last, I put one coat of clear protective finish that I had laying around in the garage and then it was time to (finally) assemble the project.

Part 2: Assembly
I actually started this part before the painting, but it works better logically to assemble your card holder after your frame is how you want it… so ignore that my frame is not painted in the pictures and let’s pretend like I did it right and move along.

My tools for this section include:
- picture hanging kit from Hobby Lobby ($2.99)
- pliers
- a tape measure
- a pencil
- common sense in math (which I had to borrow from my husband)


This part was really easy (minus the math). Basically, I measured out how many inches I had to work with. Then I divided it up so that the top wire would be 4” from the top (since my cards would be hanging down from it) and the other wires were 8” apart. Somehow it all worked out.

I used the tape measure and pencil to make little marks on my frame. I took the little loop-screws from the picture hanging kit and I began to screw them into my “x”es. I found that using pliers to give the little screws more torque and a better grip made the process much easier.


Screw in all of your little loop screws (I think my husband calls them eye hooks). I had a total of 8, but you may have more or less depending on the size of your frame. (Here’s looking at the frame face down).


Note the placement of the little screws. They are on the inside of the frame in the middle of the wood there (behind the little ledge that would go over the picture). I did this so that 1) it would not be super visible and 2) I could hang this on the wall and it would lay flat.

So now, all we have to do is string the wire. I chose to use the picture wire that came in my cheap little picture hanging kit from Hobby Lobby that I mentioned earlier. My husband suggested that I made a fishing knot. I had no idea what he was talking about… so I turned to my good friend Google and found this helpful video that totally applies. It should look something like this:


Here it is with all of the wires strung. I got my husband to contribute some man strength on this part to make sure that the wires were extra tight.


And ta-da! Now you can attach your Christmas cards to it. (I did so by using mini clothespins from Hobby Lobby, but you could also get little metal clips from the office supply store and weather them to look identical to Pottery Barn’s.)


Enjoy your adorable new creation. I think it would look better if I hung it on a dark grey wall like our inspiration piece, but oh well…


In true holiday cheer, I tried to get a photo with the Christmas tree in the background. (Excuse my bad lighting).

Our total cost: around $50
Pottery Barn’s cost: $159, Special Pricing

I think we did pretty well…

If you make one, please post a picture here so I can see it! Let me know if you have any questions.