Super Cheap Project

We have been in our apartment here in Beijing over 6 months now, and have settled in pretty well. There were still a few spots of our house though that needed a little something more. Our bedroom was one of those spots. It was just so boring. The walls in our apartment are all stark white, and I have been doing my best to cover them up, but it has taken awhile to decide what to do in the bedroom.

A few months ago there was an amazing sale at a market downtown. Nick and I picked up a lot of random things and this beautiful scroll was one of them. It is over 5 feet long and has a beautiful Chinese painting on it. It only cost 40 RMB or about 6 dollars. That was a steal. The minute I saw it I could picture it above our bed.

The next step to the project was getting it framed. The scroll sat in our extra bedroom for quite some time while we asked around about pricing. The shop next to us told us it would be between 600-700 RMB (100 dollars) because of its size. I decided to keep looking around for somewhere cheaper since our neighborhood is close to the embassy district they have been known to jack the prices up.

One day I went to explore a  local Chinese market with a bunch of women from church. A few of them had been there and said you could get really local prices since its not usually overrun with tourists. I took along my scroll hoping I would find a good deal. I took it to be measured and the quote was 220 RMB for the frame and the glass. I was in shock at how low it was and didn't even try to bargain. It took them one day to finish the frame and then we paid an extra 50 RMB for them to deliver it since I don't think a cab would have picked us up with something that big.

So the grand total for my project was 310 RMB or 48 dollars! I'm not sure how much it would have cost me to get a custom frame like this in the US, but I know it would have been a lot more. I really loved the final product. I'm excited to figure out a new project now.