FRIENDS Peephole frame DIY

Hello everyone! If you're not already aware of my unhealthy obsession with Friends this weeks blog post will be sure to illustrate the extremity of it for you. I have wanted to make a replica of Monica's yellow peephole frame for a very long time now but I've never really had a cause. Basically, an opportunity presented itself and I, of course, seized it. I will admit it did take me a week to get to the final product. But don't fret more that 90% of it was waiting for the paper mache to dry.

To create Monica's peephole frame you will need:

• newspaper
• cheap paper towel
• PVA glue 
• water 
• some old paint brushes
• scissors
• Yellow,brown and Gold paint (gold paint is optional, just use whatever works for you)

Step One:

Print out an A4 size version of the actual peephole frame to use as a template. I got my template here from www.intructables.com . Also this would be the point at which you put friends on to watch while creating your masterpiece. 

Step Two:

Mix some PVA glue with a small amount of water just to thin the glue a little bit so its easier to paint on. Lay out a sheet of newspaper and use and old paint brush to paint the PVA glue and water mixture all over the sheet. Then roll up the newspaper so that its about an inch thick. Layout your strips of rolled up newspaper ontop of the template so it resembles something like this:

You will have to leave this for a couple of days to completely dry out before you do the next step. Be patient otherwise all your hard-work so far will be for nothing. :)

Step Three:

Once your 'frame' has dried you're ready to paper mache over the top. The aim is to make the gaps appear filled in but apply the mache so it dips a little in the middle - this makes sure the swirls and outlines are still defined. You need some cheap paper towel - newspaper mache is probably too harsh. To start off layer together a few sheets of paper towel and drape it between sections of the frame. Build up the layers of paper mache until the entire frame is covered. Once your done your frame should look like this:

Leave this to dry out completely before doing the next step. If you want to speed up the drying process just use a hairdryer (but don't get too close haha).

Step Four:

You're ready to paint wooh! First paint the entire thing in a yellow as close to the original colour. Then go back in and add shading around the swirls and curves to add dimension. 

I used a mixture of gold, brown and yellow to shade. I like the gold because it gave a kind of bronzed effect. 

And this is your final product!

I super happy with how mine turned out and it was actually way easier to make that I thought it would be. Have fun creating your masterpiece!

Zoë xx