Old Picture Frames, Clothesline, and Clips: Change Your Photos Anytime

Clothesline picture frames courtesy of Love Chic Living

If you have any old, large art frames around, think twice before chucking them in the trashcan. Once you’ve read this blog, you may well find yourself in search of an old frame just for this cool DIY repurposing project. So what’s the deal? You’re going to use old frames from large paintings as frames to house clotheslines or wire picture hanger. Then you will be able to add clothespins and voila, you have a place to hang 3x5 or 4x6 images! Here’s how the YOUHANGIT hardware and home decor idea machine helps you make it happen.

So many of us only have our favorite family photos or landscapes images in the digital world. Looking at beautiful pictures on a high resolution screen is nice, but there is a certain earthy element missing… there is something magical about having pictures of your kids, pets, vacations, and random other snapshots around the house. Luckily, there are ways to get your images from your Google Drive, Instagram, Facebook albums, Dropbox, or a cloud onto actual paper.

One great place to have this done is PostalPix: you can upload the images of your choosing right into their user interface from your iPhone or Android phone. You can download PostalPix right from the app store for almost any phone platform. Make sure you pick a wide variety from current photos to throwbacks and holiday pics to mix it up for special occasions, etc. It’s a lot more fun when you can swap out from an inventory, for example, when your son is bringing his prom date over, you can toss images of him in the tub and playing with his teddy bear—because revenge is best served cold and in a frame.

Once your favorite pictures have arrived in the mail, you can start the picture frame project. Take the old frame, paint it with any color you like—you can even take it outside and spay paint it with metallic colors, add polka dots, or for you minimalists, sand that sucker down and leave as-is.

Grab some small D-ring screws and some clothesline or picture wire. Measure the width from one side of the frame to the next, and add an inch or two so the line hangs a little—it’s part of the look, and also ensures you won’t put too much stress on the line when you hang your images. You’ll tie the string or wire VERY WELL to the D-ring screws, then screw those into the interior sides of the frame. Pick wooden clothespins and use as-is, or paint them to go with a theme you’ve created for the frame(s) you’ve worked on.

You’ll want to learn how to add sawtooth hangers to the back of a picture frame—they will do best with this project type as you won’t want a wire hanger interfering with the photos or design since there is no backing to the frame and the wall behind it will be visible. Adding sawtooth hangers is generally as easy as picking a high quality adhesive and measuring—we recommend adhering two sawtooth hangers, one on either side of the frame’s back—this will ensure best possible results once you have leveled using the YOULEVEL and a frame that isn’t crooked once you have used the YOUHANGIT picture hanging system.