trash to treasure

My daughter moved house recently and one of the items left by the previous occupants was this dusty old picture.  It is a print of Constable's "The Haywain" that had been framed by Haigh and Sons, I stopped Hubby on his way to the skip and stashed it away for a makeover.

After a good clean down the first job was to paint the frame with some white eggshell paint I had left over from previous projects.  I used tape to mask off the picture to try and keep the edges clean.

The decorated corners required a kind of splodging technique to try and get into all the nooks and crannies.

Just painting the frame white has changed the whole look of the picture and brightened it up, however, I was not finished yet.

Once the the frame was dry I took the masking tape off the picture and taped it to protect the newly painted frame.

When I took the tape off I did lose some of the surface of  the picture but this was about to be covered in blackboard paint so I wasn't too concerned.

Quite a transformation from the gold framed print of an old master.

It has now been seasoned (chalk pulled down and across to cover the whole surface to ensure that your writing can get rubbed away) and is ready to be hung.

Before I began this project I did my research to ensure that there was no real value in the picture (approx £10-£20), I had this old news story in my mind and wanted to make sure that I was not going to be in the headlines!

So what do you think did I transform trash to treasure or do you think I have trashed a treasure?