Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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Using Personal Keys To Make Shadowbox Art

Last week during the blogiversary madness, there were requests for more fast & *almost* free projects – especially the ones that renters and homeowners alike can whip out in under an hour. So here’s an under $10 project that I took ten minutes, tops.

Key Family Reveal

Do you get the hidden meaning behind the keys? Look a little closer. See how there’s one tall key, one medium key, and two small keys (one of which is horizontal while one’s vertical)? Well, that’s our little key family. Haha. Burger’s the horizontal guy.

When I saw a bowl of keys for $2 at an antique store on the way home from Granny’s, I stared at them for a while, literally thinking “what can I do with these?” When I saw some big ones and some small ones, it came to me. Why not get a daddy key, a momma key, a Clara key, and a Burger key? So eight bucks later I had my little key “muses” at home on my desk in a pile. It took me a few weeks to get to the craft store to grab some nice thick wood-grain-ish paper (I ended up finding it Michaels for 60 cents), which I decided would make a fun natural background for my rustic little old keys. So I got it home and cut it down to fit into the Ikea frame that I already had on hand.

Keys1

Then I just taped the paper in place behind the mat (which came with the frame).

Keys2

Next I laid out the keys in height order, and tipped the Burger key over since that’s more like his shape. After snickering for a minute at my little key family (yeah, I’m that ridiculous) I grabbed some Gorilla Glue and put a few dollops on the back of each key and pressed them down into the paper so they’d dry in that layout. You might want to do this on top of cardboard or a dropcloth, just in case the glue bleeds through the paper (ya don’t want to glue everything to the table/counter).

Keys3

Oh and to anyone at home trying to glue something slightly heavy like a metal key to something, the key is to get thick enough paper – or if you have thin paper, try backing it with something thicker (like gluing it to cardboard or card stock) to stabilize it so it’ll hold those metal keys without buckling or sagging. Thankfully our paper was nice and thick- sort of like card stock.

Ta-daaa. The fun part about this was that it was so quick and easy that if we should ever add another little one (pooch or human) to the pack, I can always pop these off of the paper, choose a new background in any print or pattern, and grab a few more old keys at a thrift or antique store to glue on.

Key Detail2

Oh and you can kind of tell from the picture, but there’s still glass in the frame. I wondered if the keys would be too thick for the glass to work (in which case I just would have used the frame without the glass, so they would be 3-D/exposed in the front) but I just tried securing the back of the frame with the glass in there and it latched, so it’s nice to know that I won’t have dust collecting on the keys. But if you have a more shallow frame that doesn’t allow the glass to remain once you add the thickness of the keys, getting a shadow box or just removing the glass is always an option.

As for where we hung it, the wall in the laundry room right next to the door that we go in and out of everyday seemed like a nice spot since that’s where we have a few favorite personal/family pics along with other randomly meaningful items…

Key Art Grouping

… like an iron bee hook that reminds us of the bees on our wedding invites and a metal 7, which is a nod to our wedding date (we actually picked that up at a local outlet, The Decorating Outlet, this weekend and I hung it when I hammered in my key art).

  Key Art Wide After

What are you guys popping into frames lately? Don’t you love that you can grab cool textured paper like the wood grain stuff that we used? I’m a happy camper in that paper aisle, I’m telling ya. Do any of you have old skeleton keys that actually work in a door or two in your home? That has always been a dream of mine. Well, that and living in the paper aisle…

Comments

  2. Jess @ Little House. Big Heart. says

    I love this! It’s too cute.

    We have several old keys floating around in our junk drawers that we don’t know what they’re to. I’ve been wanting to do something with them for a while. Maybe I’ll make some art out of them.

    Is that paper textured? It’s gorgeous by itself!

    Reply

  4. susan says

    Love the idea. I have so many keys that I have saved over the years from different houses and cars. Too bad I didn’t label them all. I am going to make a picture with them. Thanks Sherry………..

    Reply

  5. Robin @ our semi organic life says

    I have 2 working skeleton keys actually! It is a dream! Nighmare if you use one of them though – since it technically fits all interior doors in our current house, yet normally sticks. I once locked my husband in a room for 30 mins while I tried to unlock him with the skeleton key! oops.

    My other is from a real life working skeleton front door from our house back in England. No door knob, just a key to get in and out. How cool! It was dreamy. (although again, nightmarish if locked in in a fire)
    This is why we don’t use them anymore!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh no! That sounds like something I would do (locking the hubby in a room for 30 minutes by accident). They do still sound amazing to me though! So jealous.

      xo
      s

    • Robin @ our semi organic life says

      sorta a prank gone wrong… big oops. Finally got it after lots of WD40! Heads up for anyone who has an old house: we found our skeleton key on the top of a door frame after living there for a while! Someone had left it there and we only found it after being on a tall ladder.

    • Shellie says

      I have found keys on door frames in the last 2 houses I’ve lived in! They were just little dummy keys for opening privacy doors, but it was still funny to find something new after living there awhile.

    • Sarah@SBrandesDesigns says

      They really are a nightmare to use! My apartment in Rome when I was studying abroad had this crazy massive door which required like 3 different crazy looking keys for. It was like one key goes here, turn it clockwise 3.5 times, another goes here, counterclockwise 3/4 a turn, last one goes here, simultaneously turn this one at the same time you are turning the others (even though you only have two hands). Such a nightmare and there were soooo many times we couldn’t get the door open…

  7. Sarah says

    Sherry, before you know it, you’re going to be the little key and Clara is going to be the middle key! Our house is so old that our doors still use skeleton keys. I feel like a dungeon master haha.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha, I know it about Clara being the tall one soon enough. And it’s so awesome that your house has skeleton keys. I wanna be a dungeon master when I grow up!

      xo
      s

    • denise says

      Ha ha! I wouldn’t have thought about it that way but we’re in that situation. Both my boys are taller than I am now. I don’t think it would be so cute with “mom” separated from “dad” by 2 kids.

      Very cute project! And I love the new 7.

  8. Julia @ Chris Loves Julia says

    So, so sweet. We would need 3 really tall ones. Okay, maybe I am giving Greta too much credit. But the girl, I fear she will be even taller than I am one day. We are currently working on a gallery wall for the living room. In fact, I worked on it for I think 5 hours yesterday. It’s all art, but I would love to include this idea!

    Reply

  9. LeCheech says

    D’aw, mine would only have two li’l keys. I don’t think anyone else would get its significance; but I picked up on y’alls right away!

    Reply

  10. Valerie says

    So cute! I have a ton of skeleton keys my MIL gave me from her Dad’s house… this would be a fun little keepsake to make for her, thanks for sharing!

    Reply

  12. Erin R says

    I have a skeleton key problem, which is that I “collect” them because they’re cool (i.e. buy one in almost every antique store I go to) and then I shove them in a drawer somewhere never to see the light of day again. I am totally going to do this with some of the prettier ones, what a great idea!

    Reply

  15. Lacy says

    We recently bought a foreclosure and have been busy fixing it up. While I was painting I found the blue prints to the house on top of the cupboards. I framed two of them on Sunday, just need to frame two more. We are also making a “frame wall” after seeing your awesome hallway. Thanks for all of the inspiration. :)

    Reply

  17. Emily S says

    Love this! We recently went to Ireland and mostly stayed at B&B’s. A lot of them had functioning skeleton keys for the room keys. It added so much charm to the whole experience :)

    Reply

  20. Erin R says

    Oh, and my friend just gave me an antique steamer trunk that she didn’t have room for (!!!) and one of my keys actually fit it (!!!!!) and I FLIPPED. OUT. with happiness, so I definitely understand wanting cool old doors with cool old skeleton keys!

    Reply

  21. Emma (Broke Ass Home) says

    Sherry, I love this! Super cute.

    Our back door actually uses a skeleton key which makes me feel kinda BA strutting around town with it on my key ring.

    We made artwork last night too! I used an old rug and made upholstered artwork for above my bed. I threw it up on our blog already because I may secretly really hope that in your crazy life you find 10 minutes to peek at other people’s blogs :)

    Keep up the awesomeness!
    -Emma

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh man, I would totally feel like a boss strutting around with a skeleton key on my key chain. Are you kidding? Swag.

      And as for your rug-turned-art, I love it! So creative.

      xo
      s

    • Patricia says

      I own one skeleton key and I love it to pieces and always want more! It’s been on my keys for about 8 years now. Glad to know I’m a BA and walking around with swag. Hahah. I need to find more now and make some art! Oh and my key was only .25! It was funny bc I was at a gun show with my boyfriend and another couple. The girl and I were bored and found the box of keys and they were 2 for .50 and we each had only one quarter (the curse of debit cards, no one carries cash) so I think it was meant to be for us to get a key! Though both the relationships there broke up but my key is still with me! I’m engaged now so it’s all good.

  22. Sophie says

    LOVE old keys like that! It looks so good!
    We used to have an old stable style door, white wood with black ironwork on it – so pretty. It had HUGE keys that went to the lock and I loved them so much when I was a kid!

    We ended up having to change the door though, since an old farm door like that doesn’t offer a lot of options for home security – bummer!

    Reply

  23. laura says

    When my grandma passed away we had to clean out her house and I found two skeleton keys on her kitchen windowsill so I took them and I have always wondered what to do with them. I’ve been keeping them with my scrap booking stuff thinking I would do a page dedicated to her and have those on the page but I think framing them is an even better idea! :)

    Reply

  24. Delilah says

    I just glued a bunch of foreign coins I didn’t want to get rid of into a frame. Makes them at least a bit more functional then sitting in a drawer somewhere. And a cheap souvenir!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha, I promise sometimes I stare and things and… nothing. It’s definitely not an everyday thing. But sometimes I just go through lists of materials in my head (canvas? fabric? frame? stencil? paint?) and they sometimes jog an idea. Hope it helps!

      xo
      s

  28. Jenn says

    That is so cute! I’m working on a frame of the keys to every apartment & house we’ve lived in together – 4 total. To celebrate a year in our new house (guess it’s not really new anymore, huh?) I framed the newspaper listing of our house from when we bought it.

    Reply

  29. Jenelle says

    I love the Burger key turned on its side. :)

    Also, you’ve got a typo in this paragraph (kays instead of keys):

    Oh and you can kind of tell from the picture, but there’s still glass in the frame. I wondered if the keys would be too thick for the glass to work (in which case I just would have used the frame without the glass, so they would be 3-D/exposed in the front) but I just tried securing the back of the frame with the glass in there and it latched, so it’s nice to know that I won’t have dust collecting on the kays. But if you have a more shallow frame that doesn’t allow the glass to remain once you add the thickness of the keys, getting a shadow box or just removing the glass is always an option.

    Reply

  33. Alyssa says

    I love it!!! I’m always a fan of quick and easy projects. my hubby on the other hand loves the inexpensive ones!! :)

    Reply

  34. Stephanie says

    Very cool idea.

    I’ve pretty much decided that I want to do a frame wall. I think the easiest thing for me to do is going to be to collect frames and get them up and then decide what goes in them.

    Although it’ll probably look funny with a bunch of blank frames on the wall…

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes! We actually hung all of the frames in the frame wall without knowing what we’d put in them and just filled them up (and switched them out over time) as we went!

      xo
      s

    • Karen F says

      I did the same thing – the most important thing is to get the frames up, and then you can fill them over time!

  35. [email protected] says

    The church I grew up in was locked with a skeleton key…as a kid I thought it was so cool. And the entire town knew the key was hanging right above the door frame….tells you a lot about the town! Door locked, key hanging beside it!

    Reply

  36. heyruthie says

    ooooh! with that new #7, and the bee hook, I’m dying to photoshop your door “knob” (lever??) ORB!!!! a little spray paint, and those 3 items will be in perfect harmony!!!

    Reply

  37. Gretchen says

    So, let’s see, I’d need…..12 keys for this here. Hmm….I think we have too many, umm…cats, dogs, and kids. heh. seriously, though–very cute. I’ve got a lot of blank walls staring at me in the new house, so I love your DIY art ideas. I’ve got programs from kid plays and film classes framed and ready to hang over the piano right now…sort of a performing arts corner, I guess.

    Reply

  39. Anele @ Success Along the Weigh says

    That is seriously cute and I would giggle at the Burger key too!

    I have 3 skeleton keys strategically placed in our bedroom. We hold the keys to our past (key beside some 1920’s postcards), our present (a message in a bottle used in a scavenger hunt for our wedding anniversary) and our future (key beside vintage Paris postcards, a place we’d like to visit someday) Kinda hokey but we like it.

    Reply

  40. Ali says

    Our daughter was born 3 weeks ago, and in an extra frame I had, I put the “baby girl” Hallmark card that my husband and toddler brought us in the hospital and hung it in the nursery. You get tons of cards when you have a baby, but I wanted to keep the one that meant the most!

    Reply

  41. Monica Crowder says

    We just bought a new house and all the door knobs use skeleton keys. Thankfully they are all the same two keys. When we switch all the knobs out (which is this weekends project) I plan to frame our two keys as well. I hadn’t thought of adding “kid” keys. I may have to go antique shopping.

    Reply

  43. Sarah says

    This is so sweet! The house I grew up in had a few doors upstairs that required these beautiful skeleton keys to unlock- I’ll have to check with my parents to see if one “accidentally” got packed when they moved out last year–here’s hoping! That would be a nice little keepsake from back home.
    p.s. just noticing the new little addition to your header—LOVE!!!

    Reply

  47. pen@new york nonsense says

    I just got so excited that the last key was a little announcement! ;) This is a great idea. I love keys and kind of wish I saved our old apt keys from past apartments to do a little key montage of me and the Husb’s years together.

    Reply

  48. Anastasia Taboada says

    I love old keys so much! I think it goes back to watching the movie The Indian in the Cubboard (rememeber that one?) Now I have a key necklace and a collection of keys I bought while on our honeymoon in a tiny town in Florida that had amazing antique/thrift stores. We even gave out antique looking keys that doubled as bottle openers as our wedding favor!
    I’ll have to frame my keys from my honeymoon now! Great idea

    Reply

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