One thing's for sure, the big fat cats over at Big Picture Frame Inc are sitting pretty on a huge pile of money. Picture frames are OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive. Like, even at IKEA, the big, poster sized frames are £15 which, let's face it, is more than you spent on the artful reworking of the Mean Girls film poster you've got ready to hang in your bedroom.
Someone, somewhere, at the tip top of Frame World, is a gazillionaire.
To avoid giving any more money to this douche, we've come up with a number of ways to get round spending your hard earned cash on a frame without compromising on looking cool.
1. Make your frame
This, from the house of stylist Emily Starr Alfano on the blog Design Sponge, looks great and, it's a DIY project that even you can do, with your unbelievably limited DIY skills. Just get a piece of wood (I've got them lying around from bed slats that have fallen out and bits of wardrobe that have come loose - classy eh?) and some bulldog clips (these ones are less than £4) then nail them to the piece of wood (nails and hammer needed, obvs) before attaching the pictures and leaning the wood against the wall. If you're really fancy, paint the wood with furniture paint - for something this size you can afford just to get the tester size pots. They'll say you can't use it on varnished wood but you totally can.
2. For the really lazy
If you literally can't be bothered to do anything at all, just get some binder clips and copy this idea from This Is Poster - the concept is basically the same as daisy chain except instead of daisies, it's stationery-based. Try organising the pictures from lightest to darkest and vice versa, or creating multiple chains with each focussing on a different main colour theme; like if there's loads of grass in the picture, put it in the 'green tones' chain. Secure to the wall with a nail tack or drawing pin.
3. If you've got a ton of pretty postcards
Museum gift shops are like crack. Verrrrry more-ish. Specifically because of the postcard section - it's basically my way of getting 'art' withouth having to pay (much) for it. If you've got a box like mine filled with postcards featuring paintings from the Louvre, pictures of sculptures from the Tate and pictures of medieval sex toys from Sex Museum in Amsterdam then grab yourself some twine (lots of different colours on sale here) and some cute clothespins (I mean, could there be any more of these on Etsy?).
4. If you want to take it up a notch
This idea from Her Campus is exactly the same as number three. Except with fairy lights. Obviously. As you can see. Get your lights here if you can't nick them from Mum and Dad's Christmas tree decoration box. They won't notice until December by which point you'll be in sunny Mexico.
5. If you really want something that says 'frame'
Then washi tape is your friend. Washi tape is great. It's basically that ugly beige masking tape stuff they gave you at school because you couldn't do any lasting damage taping Hannah Collinsworth to the chair with it. But in pretty colours. It doesn't rip wallpaper or paint off your wall (hello renters, and by renters I mean everyone) and, thanks to those loveable but bonkers ladies from Japan and Korea, comes in all sorts of colours. Make like My Cup Of Te here and use it to create frames for pictures you've just white-tacked to your walls. Maybe without the 'live sparkly' print.
Unsuprisingly again, Etsy has got a literal epidemic of washi tape to choose from.
6. Use clipboards
Clipboards you can probably just pilfer from work. Although we definitely don't condone stealing. If you're being a goody goody and want to recreate Studio Joe Joe'sclever clipboard display idea without committing theft though (boring) you can purchase them for £1.18 each here. Just nail them to the wall and print out an bunch of A4 prints with a cohesive narrative (this you definitely can do with your work printer) and clip them in. You might have to blu-tack the corners of each print down to stop it curling up. Make sure you display in straight rows.
7. If you're super lazy part two
Do what Junkaholique has done here and literally get four bulldog clips, attach them to your poster and nail them to your wall. Bob's your mum, you're done.
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Follow Jess on Twitter @Jess_Commons
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.