I am kicking myself sooooooo hard right now! I didn’t take a before picture of this one and I really wish I had because the transformation was amazing!

This is an actual watercolor I found at The Salvation Army.  I did manage to get a picture of the price tag.  Yep, $2.99 for a watercolor painting. Size 8×10. It’s the perfect little piece.

The only problem with it was the frame was a brassy gold that was chipping and the mat was brown. The brown really overwhelmed the painting. It also looked very 1980’s dated.

So I painted the mat (yes, you read that correctly. Didn’t know you could paint mats? It’s fine as long as you don’t paint the side that comes into contact with the art.) and the frame with Rustoleum 2X in flat white.

I’m still amazed at the transformation.  The crisp, bright white really lets the beautiful colors of the painting shine. And now it looks completely updated.

I will be keeping an eye out for more prints/paintings that look dated because of there mats and frames.