I took a week off to enjoy my 25 year wedding anniversary in Maui, but today I’m back with a charming new DIY project. Vintage art and traditional decor has returned, and both make a home feel cozy and welcoming.
I’ve always loved botanical wallpaper so I thought a collection of the small scale papers would look so sweet and unique if secured to frames and mats for the purpose of displaying vintage herb prints.
I chose Spoonflower as my source of wallpaper and did a search for ‘small scale botanical wallpaper’, then I browsed the patterns to narrow down my selections.
On Spoonflower, you can order a swatch of wallpaper and the company will send a 24” x 12” sample. When wallpaper was on sale a few weeks ago, I chose three botanical non-pasted wallpaper prints to play with.
After the three wallpaper samples arrived, I bought three 8×10” matted flat edge frames at Michaels to frame 5×7” herb art prints.
To recreate these wallpapered frames, you’ll need 12×24” wallpaper samples in a pattern of your choice, 8×10” frames matted for a 5×7” art print, scissors, a flat paintbrush, and tacky glue.
Cut the wallpaper samples in half so there are two 12×12” pieces. Cut a 5×5” square inside the first piece of wallpaper. Apply tacky glue to the front of the 8×10” picture frame and layer wallpaper on top. Cut angles to allow wrapping wallpaper around the inside of the main picture frame.
Next center the mat over the top of the wallpapered frame to align the pattern to the mat. Apply glue to the front of the mat and layer the wallpaper on top. Allow it to dry, then trim edges and center of mat so it fits inside wallpapered picture frame.
Layer the wallpapered mat inside the wallpapered frame then insert the glass into the back of the wallpapered picture frame. The piece of glass sits behind the wallpapered mat. Center the art print behind the glass, then finish the framing process by adding the cardboard included with the frame to the back.
If you’d like to use the same herb art I used, you can download these 8 ½ x 11” pdf pages from my website and print them at home or with a local printing service.
lavender and rosemary 5×7” pdf
thyme and sage 5×7” pdf
Any small scale botanical or floral wallpaper will give you the same look! These are charming hung on the wall in a set or layered on bookshelves as backdrops to books and decor.
