$15 LARGE ENGINEERED PRINT AND FRAME

As part of my "I was Influenced" series I not only wanted to look at products, but also ideas that have gained popularity in the blog-o-insta-sphere. This one isn't new, for the past few years giant engineered print photos have graced home decor blogs. I had read that they don't come out as great as people think they do, but I was curious to try for myself. Here's how I made this 24" x 36" large scale photo and frame for a little under $15. ​

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I am really terrible about printing photos (aren't we all), but I did want to make an effort to display some of my wedding prints in my home. I am in the middle of a bedroom refresh and thought that it would be nice to have a framed photo from our wedding day there. My dad gave us a new miter saw for Christmas, so I also thought this would be a great introductory project. ​
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​I decided to go with black and white since the room itself is black and white. I love black and white photography and my photographer (Olivia Gately Photography if your local) did a great job with it.
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The first thing you need for this project is the large print. If you've ever tried to have a picture enlarged you know it can add up quickly. I looked into creating a "poster" out of my image at Target Photo, but a 24 X 36 poster would run around $40. So that's when I decided to see if what all the influencers say about engineered prints are true.
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​Engineered prints are usually used to display things like architecture plans and drawings, not photos.​ In fact I read quite a few stories where people said Staples no longer will print photos as part of their "engineered prints." I also read that the images are more blurry than bloggers let on (I have a solution for that).  I decided to try my luck anyway. I figured for $4 it was worth the gamble.
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Prior to uploading my picture, I opened up Canva (you can use any graphic design or photo editing software). I created a new Canva and set the pixels to 24" x 36" and then sized my image and saved it as a new file. I thought this was important to ensure that when the image was blown up it remained sharp. By the way I LOVE Canva and use it for my blog daily (this is not an ad, I just think it's a great product).
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​I uploaded my new image to the Staples website, paid, pressed submit and waited for them to call me and say they couldn't do it. They never did. 2 hours later I picked up a giant poster sized image. I was impressed with how sharp it was. So for $4 I now had my image.
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Next I needed supplies for the frame. I decided to use 1X3's cut at 45 degree angles. 1 X boards are cheap and they cut like butter on the new saw. ​
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This is a 2' x 3' white board, and the back is a chalkboard...$6 at Lowes!

I originally planned to mount my picture on plywood. If you go to the back corner of Lowes (where they cut the wood) there is a whole section of smaller plywood pieces ranging from 2X2 to 2X8. They range in price from $7-$20 depending on what you get. I was planning on getting an inexpensive 2X4 and cutting it down. To my surprise they had a board in that section that was a white board on one side and a chalk board on the other. I thought that was pretty cool, and it was already the size I needed, no extra cuts! For $6 I thought it was perfect. My plan was to mount the picture to the whiteboard side and then down the line I could flip it over and use the chalkboard.

Just for comparison, a chalkboard framed in a similar way to what we're doing is $60 on Amazon!
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Okay, so putting it all together:

To mount the picture to the board I used adhesive spray and smoothed it out like crazy. I was really nervous that once it went down it wouldn't be forgiving, but I had a little leeway to re-position. I used 3M Adhesive Spray because we had it on hand. We also used it to refelt our pool table. Having used it on two products now, I can say I really like it. It's forgiving, smooths easily and holds up well! Someone asked if you could use a glue stick..probably, but I honestly think you wouldn't get as smooth of a surface. If it's what you have, go for it, but if you can afford to upgrade, get the adhesive spray!

Nice and smooth! I left a little boarder around the photo, but you don't have to.

While the glue was setting I built the frame.
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I cut my four side pieces at 45 degree angles and attached them with pocket screws and a staple gun for extra hold. Finally I stained them "Dark Walnut" because I had it leftover from another project. (Also, Dark Walnut has streaks of black in it which I thought would pull the black from the photo). 
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I didn't use wood filler on this because I wanted a more rustic frame, but you could if you didn't want seams.

I have to admit, putting a brown wood frame against a black and white picture struck me as odd, but I've seen it on other blogs and it always looked nice, so I went for it. I figured I could repaint it later if I didn't like it.
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I am really pleased with the warmth of the wood against the black and white photo.

​The other reason I went with a wood stain instead of black paint was to bring some warmth to my room. The walls are black and white. I'll be adding a black fireplace, so there's a need for something warm. I may also frame a large mirror with the same wood tone to pull it in throughout the room.
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Once the frame dried I used the staple gun to attach it to my mounted photo. Done!
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I thought about hanging it above my bed, but I thought it deserved it's own wall.

All in all I'm really happy with how it turned out. It cost me less than $15 including the picture and it's custom to my space. I was pleasantly surprised that the engineering print hack worked. If you see the engineered print trick floating around on influencers blogs and accounts, give it a try! I'm so happy I did. I do want to note that my cost was low because I had my stain and spray on hand already. If you have to purchase these things, you should add another $15 to the project total (still..$30 for a custom framed print isn't bad)! You will be able to reuse those items as well, you only need about 1/8 of a tiny jar of stain, and just a little spray adhesive.

All in all with this project, I have to say that I've been influenced...and I'm okay with it! ​This bedroom is coming along slowly, if you want to know how I did the geometric feature wall, you can find that here. I'd love to see your framed print if you try this!