"Frame Job"

When we moved into our house, we painted everything and I mean EVERYTHING!  So, by the time we were nearly finished, we were so sick of painting that we hired out some of the final work.  One of those jobs was the hallway.  Two ladies came in and painted some closets and the hallways, and clearly they didn't remove the thermostat before painting, they just painted around it.  A few months later, when we upgraded our furnace, we also upgraded our thermostat.  As you can see, the old one was round and the new one was a rectangle - thus the illustrious marks on the wall.

A few months ago, I saw a photo of someone's thermostat and it had a frame around it, and while I'm sure they did it merely for aesthetics, I wanted to do it to cover up the huge flaw on my wall.  I never could find a frame that suited my needs (or my budget - I wasn't spending big $$$ on a frame for my thermostat, no matter how much I needed it), so when I stumbled upon a cheap wooden frame at Michael's I was thrilled.  I had every intention of painting the frame, but ultimately decided I liked the natural wood appeal.  So, below is a picture of the thermostat sans frame.......

And above, is the thermostat with the frame.  Using cardboard, I created a mat and covered it with a neutral fabric and then hot-glued the mat to the frame.  Personally, I think it dresses up the thermostat, and hides the ugliness of the former one quite nicely!  And the best part?  (besides the fact that my wall is significantly improved) it cost all of $1.99.

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