Picture Frame Trellis

It's the time of year when the crocuses start springing up out of nowhere, coaxing my inner gardening monster out of hibernation. Instead of unleashing the beast at Wight's Nursery to run my debit card through the ringer, this time around I'm going to force it to concentrate on outside projects. Cheap projects. At least, I’m going to try.

Last year my favorite creation was my Picture Frame Trellis. I spent months trying to find the perfect trellis for a bare, just-begging-for-a-pretty-vine area on the front of my little rented house. Every trellis I found was boring or expensive, and usually both. Then I found myself at thrift stores tilting my head thoughtfully at everything from old box springs to headboards to kitchen utensils. Yeah, no. And then it hit me: Maybe I could stack and stagger a bunch of picture frames? Hmm.

I ended up gathering various picture frames from Goodwill, garage sales and the like. I discarded the glass and the backs (it pained me to chuck them, but I couldn’t think of a damn thing to do with them) and spray painted them white. Arranging and rearranging the frames into various configurations on my front lawn, I was pretty much hating what I was coming up with. Then I realized that I could just take a few, lay them in a vertical row, fasten them together and be done with it. I drilled two holes in the tops and bottoms of the frames, tied them together with jute, and hung the creation along with my little beach glass mosaic mirror that was also looking for the perfect home. Voila! Ten bucks for a cute little trellis!

In hindsight, I think the drilling and the jute were a mistake. The drilling cracked some of the frames, and I’m surprised the jute didn’t eventually break under the weight of the healthy lime-hued hops that had taken over by August. I think I’ll be better off screwing two little eye screws (there’s a name for those, right? I have no idea) into the top and bottom, and using small chains instead of jute.

I think I’ll focus on finding frames in unusual shapes and with neat detail for the next go around. But first, maybe I should just head to the nursery to find the perfect vine...