Painted Picture Frames; Trying out Gesso

I Love Pinterest :) And I am sure a lot of my ideas and decorating tips will be coming from there as I try to decorate our new house! I bought these beautiful picture frames from Hobby Lobby--I just happened to stop in one day when they were 50% off!! I put them on my wall and decided that they needed something different then the black high gloss paint. I had seen a few pins floating around about gesso....so I decided to try it!

Before Pictures:

Try to ignore the mess and boxes....

Naturally, the first thing I did was paint them grey; one of my favorite colors :) I did not feel like digging through the boxes in our garage and pulling out our spray gun and all of our paint, so I just ran to Walmart real quick and grabbed a few cans of their cheapest paint!

After spray painting them and letting them dry (several days if your like me and get sidetracked..) you are ready for the gesso! Ok, I had never heard of this before so if you are like me I will give you a few tips. I found it at Hobby Lobby in the art section. Its not cheap, the little 4 oz bottle was $6! But I was prepared for this and brought my 40% off coupon. It was labeled as a canvas paint primer....and I will just say right now that I am not even sure if I bought the right stuff! But I did get the results I wanted, so hey :)

I didn't take pictures as I did this but it is super easy, if you have glazed furniture before it is the same technique. 

Using a foam brush, I quickly spread the gesso over one side of my frame. The gesso is a lot like paint and dries fast so only do small areas at a time.

Next, use a damp rag ( I use old socks! They seem to work the best for me and don't leave lint!) to both take off and spread the gesso around evenly until you get the desired affect you want. Feel free to add more gesso if you want a heavier coat.

Repeat on the rest of the frame!

After:

My thoughts on Gesso after; It felt just like Latex paint to me! Did I get the right stuff? I dont know, I will have to research it more, let me know if you know! :) I think next time I want this effect I am going to just try paint and see if it works...it definetly would be a lot cheaper! If that doesn't work I know you can buy clear glaze and tint it to whatever color you want...I need to start trying that as well! But I am happy with the results, I LOVE how the frames turned out! :)