Thrifty Coastal Wall Decor (easy and cheap!!)

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It’s so much fun (and so easy!) to decorate your home with thrifty finds. Sometimes you have to look beyond what you see. With a little paint and some creativity, you can create a home that you love on a budget! These thrifty coastal wall decor prints ended up costing less than $3 each!

Isn’t that just crazy? Less than $6 for both.
As a matter of fact, I paid $5.25 for both, to be exact. And I didn’t spend a dime to make them over.

It’s Trash to Treasure Transformation day, friends! That means I get together with several other blogger friends and share our trashy treasures with you. (be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom to see theirs)

My find this month is this set of two prints I found at the thrift store recently.

Here’s how they looked when I found them at the thrift store.

Kind of dark, aren’t they? But they are totally something I would have used in my decor some years back.
Which would’ve been an even greater find if I were still decorating in that theme.

But since I am not, it doesn’t mean these still were not a great find, because, for $5.25, you can’t beat it.

I loved the frames and the elongated style and knew they’d be great with a little paint and brand new prints.

I just needed to figure out what kind of prints to use. I had an idea of what I wanted, birds.
Coastal birds, to be exact. But I couldn’t really find what I was looking for.
Not only that, it would end up being pricy if I had to purchase prints.

So, I went through some old vacation photos and settled on 2 different photos I took while in Florida a few years ago.
You can see them and the rest of the photos from that trip, here >>> Anna Maria Island Florida Vacation

I also decided to give them a watercolor type look as well.
So as I did with these prints and photos I took for this project>>> Simple & Thrifty Coastal Wall Art Tutorial,  I edited the original photos I took in a program on my phone (Samsung Note) called “Paper Artist” and then sent them over to my computer to print out.

Here is what my “new” coastal wall decor ended up looking like.

If you take a look at that Florida post I linked above, you can see how these looked originally.

I simply printed them out on matte paper. (>>>this one, since it was what I had handy)

For the frames, I simply painted them white. What’s easier than that? ;)

Then I lightly sanded to reveal some of the dark underneath. (the left is done, the right is not)
And to make things easier on me, I left the glass in and just taped around the edges.
I couldn’t get them out without taking all of the staples out and honestly, I didn’t want to have to restaple if I could just rebend them back over the prints, etc.

You can use any white paint, I used this one.

Want to see some of these projects in “live” time? Hop on over and follow along with me on INSTAGRAM. I’m always sharing in my stories as I’m doing projects, finding new furniture, fun finds….just all the day to day behind the scenes. 

And done!

I mean, y’all, this could not have been any easier….or cheaper!

I have beautiful new art for my walls and it didn’t (hardly) cost a thing! Win!
Pretty new coastal wall decor.

Up close….

For the back side, I removed the paper backing when I had to get the old prints out and the new prints in…

So once they were in, I simply added a piece of contact paper over the back to make them look nice.
It doesn’t really matter as no one will see this side but it does create a nice finish.
(I popped out the metal sawtooth hanger and attached the contact paper and then reattached the hangers)

Also, the contact paper is technically removable so if you’d like it to be a little more permanent you can always hot glue, or regular glue it to the back instead.
I didn’t do that since they are hanging up on the wall and didn’t think it was really necessary.

Isn’t it amazing what a little paint will do? And a new print too.

I adore the colors, the pretty aqua, and white.
Coastal wall decor the inexpensive way.

This is not only something you can do with thrift store finds, but it’s also something you can do with old decor in and around your home.
Tired of it? Change it up! 

I’ve shared so many examples of that exact thing here on the blog. :)
It’s a super budget-friendly way to decorate your home or redecorate, I should say.
So why not?

PIN it to save it!

WAIT!! Don’t go just yet!

It’s time to see what my friends did with all of this:

1. Prodigal Pieces
2. Confessions of a Serial Do It Yourselfer
3. Bless’er House
4. Girl in the Garage

Want to see even more Trash to Treasure Transformations?? Check out all the ones from the series here >>> T2T Makeovers

I hope you enjoyed seeing all of the makeovers today. :) Remember, take a look around your home and see if there is anything you can freshen up for a new look.
Or, if you are out thrift shopping or garage sale shopping, be sure to look past what you see, and envision it instead of how it could look.

Check in later this week when I share what I did with this!

EDITED TO ADD! See it now, here!

Hope you have a wonderful week!

xoxo