My hubs has been in the process of updating the look of his office. It’s got good bones, but there are some things that were looking for a little tweak…

…Like these cadet blue + gold + maroon triple-matted, burgundy framed diplomas. They just don’t really scream him…

So you better believe that man’s crafty wife DIY’ed a fix for them!

First I removed all the frame paper and backing, removed any nails, and finally removed the diplomas.

The diplomas were spray mounted to their backer boards, so I carefully removed those (still attached to backer boards) and set them aside.

I planned to paint the frames a gloss black and the mats a flat white. I was unsure about spraying the mats, but since they were custom framed mats, they were each the perfect size, so I figured it was worth a shot.

If my plan failed, we weren’t out anything as we were planning to change to white mats either way. I jotted on the backs of the mats which certificate went with which so I could easily match them back up later then headed out back to spray them.

And who knew?! The matte white paint on the mats and the gloss black paint on the frames worked like a charm.

The diplomas themselves were off white too, so hubs photocopied those onto paper. Hmm… but the paper was too white, so then we copied them onto a slightly gray-white cardstock I had on hand. I sprayed five photo frames, three diploma frames, and one Green Bay Packer frame. And it went FAST. [Dear Spray Paint: I have a big gushy crush on you.]

The only slightly tedious part was reassembling the frames. I wanted them to be PERFECT! This keepsake collage (that’s Reggie White) also got a makeover and went from maroon & gold frame with green & gold matting to black frame with white & black matting. Cost: just paint! But WHAT a difference, huzzah!

I cannot wait to see all these hanging in his office! And I was thrilled that we could pull this off with minimal effort and just two cans of spray paint. HUZZAH!

So, anyone else out there have any super budget friendly office upgrades? Do tell!

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