First Project of the New School Year: Chicken Wire Window!

A new year, new projects, same thrifty chic results! As college girls we love taking pictures of our outings and our new friends we make each semester. We are always looking for ways, or getting new cute ideas thrown in our face on Pinterest, to display these pictures. Putting them on Facebook is fun at the time but having them displayed in your apartment means you get to see them everyday, not just when you scroll down your profile. And don't we all what to look at those pictures where we were having fun and dressed cute everyday? We sure do!!
The project idea for this wall in our apartment changed multiple times  but i can not imagine it turning out better than it did. We stated with an old three sectioned window we found buried in an antique store basement for $15. It was already green and already missing the two side panels of glass. Ideas on what to do with this window immediately started to flow, once again thanks to Pinterest.

Pinterest inspiration

 We settled on the chicken wire idea. It seemed like, and was, and cheap and easy way to display multiple pictures on this one window. We chose to add bright colored clothespins from the dollar store to hold the pictures.

Our $25 picture display!

This brings out more color and makes it extremely easy to change out the pictures displayed on there. The chicken wire was purchased from Menards in huge roll form $7. There is a ton left so don't be surprised when more chicken wire projects pop up! The slowest, most patience consuming process of this project was cutting the chicken wire. We simply measured the two side openings and cut out two sections of wire with wire cutters. The new wire however looked way too shiny and new to go with our cool old window so we brainstormed ways to induce age fast.
The resulting idea was very effective and fun for all. The idea of waiting to create real, natural rust seemed way too long for our impatient selves so we decided to burn it. Plus burning it meant there had to be a fire and honestly who doesn't like bonfires? We took our wire, left over project wood, and friends to the beach one night and the results couldn't have been better. The wire lost its shine and has many different shades of brown, gold, and black on it. Once happy with the wire color the wire was added to the back with a staple gun and the sides of the wire trimmed up. Two small screws were added to the sides on the back of the window. Definitely use a drill bit first to prevent splitting your window frame. and then wire was wrapped around the screw creating a nice durable support for the window to hang from. Some string was added to the back of a dollar frame so that can hang from the wire as well. there are many things to hang on there, not just pictures. Flowers, cute magazine clippings, anything that you want!

The end result!

A large picture will be added to the middle glass section but we were too anxious to show all of you that we couldn't wait for it to be printed. Now for the cost run down of this project. The window itself was $15 at an antique store. The Wire was $7 at Menards and has left us with plenty extra. The pictures were printed from Snapfish which gave us our first prints for free besides a $2 shipping fee. The white frame was a dollar from Goodwill. This gives us an overall total of $25! And very minimal work. We couldn't be happier with our $25 photo display.