Professional Looking Pictures in Your Own Home for Under $100.00

New Moon Vintage
by New Moon Vintage
5 Materials
$100
2 Days
Easy
I realized very soon if I wanted to get professional pictures of furniture I was selling which makes people stop and look I needed to up my game. I decided based on what I saw that I needed to create a backdrop that would really show the piece and make a photography backdrop. All for under $100.00.
This was a table I refinished that I am planning on selling. This is what it looks like with the wall in place. Thought it look look really good. The white makes whatever you paint or refinish really pop.
This photo was taken with a Cannon SX710 camera. Does not look very good. First thing I did was research what others were doing to set up a backdrop that was not a sheet, or the ones you can buy that are like wallpaper. I decided to buy 2 sheets of 4x8 MDF for $8.12 a piece at Home Depot which gave me plenty of space to take photos of whatever I wanted. You could also buy beadboard but that was going to cost a bit more money. I set mine up in a spare bedroom against one of the walls. You could also do this in a garage or even outside.
I then put Zinseer 123 primer as the first coat and after it dried went over it with two coats of the white paint I selected. I put on two coats of Glidden Pure White in satin which ran around $9.00 for a quart at Home Depot. I did this to both panels.
After I primed and painted both panels this is what it looks like. Once this was dry I simply stapled it to the wall with my stapler. Wanted to be able to remove it if I needed to later. You do not have to do this if you place your panels vertically or you can just depends what you choose to do. I chose to put them up horizontally with a molding to make it look like a chair rail where the two pieces joined.
I primed the molding and then applied two coats of paint. This was molding that was removed from my living room and was just enough to cover the 8ft width for the chair rail and the bottom of the panel where it met the floor.


This is the first panel that went up on the top half of the wall.
This is the wall completed with both panels and molding in place.
The table but with the backdrop and a little staging on top. It is like night and day!! I will add as well if you edit your photo before posting it will work wonders. Also in this photo I did buy photography lighting on Amazon for around $50.00 which helps a lot as well.
Suggested materials:
  • Ash Hardboard Tempered Panel   (Home Depot)
  • Glidden Pure White Satin   (Home Depot)
  • Molding
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