My vision for the interior decor of Osteria Al Vecchio Stallo is to cover the walls with old-timey photos, Friuli maps, horse-themed artwork, and other horse- and cooking-related memorabilia, just like in the real-life restaurant. I’ve spent the past six weeks or so creating 29 picture frames (there are 28 shown in the above photo, but I ended up making one more later, which is pictured below) that are representations of Al Vecchio Stallo’s actual pictures.
First, I took images from the restaurant’s Facebook page (Chef Mario’s daughter Vittoria is one of my Facebook friends!), cropped out the individual pictures, and used Photoshop to adjust the size and skew. After printing them on photo paper, I started building the frames using a variety of picture frame molding designed for dollhouses. I painted a few black or gold, but the rest I stained using the five stain colors I currently have—dark walnut, special walnut, golden oak, red chestnut, and natural—and finished them with gloss varnish. For the “glass,” I cut out pieces of polycarbonate plastic. As a backing to hold it all together, I simply glued on a scrap piece of photo paper.
I took the above photo in Osteria Al Vecchio Stallo on one of my many visits during the years I was doing research for my cookbook Flavors of Friuli. I really love the unique look of the wall mural to the left of the window and wanted to recreate it as a framed picture. However, in every image I found, parts of the long mural were blocked—by the hanging light, the open window, and in one photo, a book someone was holding up in the air. It was quite a challenge to Photoshop this one. I ended up using two photos taken from different angles and superimposing the unobstructed areas onto each other. I’m pretty happy with the result! (The glare in the photo below was hard to avoid. The color is actually much more vibrant than it appears.)
Originally I created 28 picture frames, but when I laid them out in a tentative arrangement on the walls (a process that was akin to putting together a jigsaw puzzle!), there was an empty space for one more. I had a few extra photos printed, held back just in case I needed to create any more frames, so it wasn’t much trouble to throw together this last one.
It will probably be a while before I get around to mounting these on the walls. I need to finish all the other decor elements first. Stay tuned!
