Distressed Antique Portrait Gallery
Give your hallway or living room wall a chilling, historic vibe by creating a gallery of distressed, haunted ancestral portraits. Source vintage-style portraits from royalty-free image sites, focusing on stern-faced subjects from the Victorian or Edwardian eras. Print them in black and white or sepia tones. To make them look centuries old, brush the prints with brewed black tea or coffee to yellow the paper, and lightly sand the edges to fray them. Place the portraits into ornate, thrifted frames painted in chipped black or tarnished gold. For a truly unsettling twist, use a red marker to give the subjects faint, glowing red pupils, or use a craft knife to carefully cut out the eyes of the portraits, placing a dark, textured fabric behind the holes to create an empty, soulless gaze that follows guests as they walk by.