How To Make A Small Painting Larger Without A Frame

Ok, that was a mouth full. I love oil paintings on canvas and not all of them are framed. Sometimes a canvas left by itself is the best. I found this fabulous zebra painting at goodwill for $5.99 on 1/2 off day. Love it for the master bathroom since I want to tie the same black and white in here that I have in the master bedroom. Only one problem, the painting is too small. Now I did have a frame that would fit it, but I didn’t like how it looked. It just seemed to make the painting look cheap, so I needed to figure out something different.

I thought maybe a black background of some kind, but what. I found a two pack of artist canvases that were 18 x 24 at Michael’s on sale for $8. Since my painting was 16 x 20 this would give it a little bit of a background and make it the right size for my space.

I had some black paint left over so I took a brush and got to work painting around the outside of the canvas. Now this didn’t cover very good and left streaks, plus I had no idea that the paint would stick so much to the paper, so I had a huge mess peeling the paper off the back of the canvas.

I decided to take it outside and use spray paint. This worked like a charm.

Now how to attach the two. See that middle wood strip, I put a small nail in the middle of that strip at the top and bottom and nailed it into the wood frame of the painting. Now these two were on piece. I added a picture hanger to the top and done.

How great does this look!!! I love it. It gives the painting the oomph that it needed and makes it the right size.

See how much better it fits the space.

Love this.

Ok, I am thrilled with my little makeover and it was so easy. I have a great art piece for a total of $4 for one canvas and $5.99 for the painting, plus the black paint was free since I already had it.