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I love to collect art. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy or expensive, I just find pieces I like and add them to the collection. My favorite art situation is finding a great painting for pennies at a thrift store. Often times these pieces are overlooked because they appear rather drab, outdated and even a bit creepy due to outdated framing. An outdated frame from the 70’s can make a piece appear stale and that is the last thing we want to showcase in our home. However, In my experience changing out the framing situation can make a world of difference to an art piece and take a really drab piece and make it a showstopper.
For example… here are some yet-to-be framed paintings in my own home. Now, the top piece has a frame that really isn’t that bad, changing out the frame on the bottom piece or pairing the top painting with another art piece that has a modern frame can really make a difference in the over all look of the grouping. For the time being I have added some rub-n-buff to that bottom frame, it was a really yucky dark drown with that speckled 70’s finish and it was doing nothing for the painting. The rub-n-buff made a slight improvement but it really needs a total frame refresh.
While framing is the key to highlighting the art in our homes it’s an area where most people feel intimidated. Custom framing seems and can be very expensive, people feel uneasy about choosing the right frames and it can seem like a job better left to the professionals but then we circle back around to V. EXPENSIVE. I’ve been framing my own art collection for a number of years now and I’d like to share my tips and resources for selecting frames and getting the best deal.
Today I’m only highlighting framing for canvas art. The world of framing is vast and it would be very difficult to cover it all with one post- this feels like a very manageable starting point. Let’s start by breaking down the types of canvas frames in the broadest categories….
The three types of canvas frames are
The Back Loader: The back loader is the most typical type of frame for a stretched canvas. The back loader is aptly named as the canvas would be placed into the frame from the back and held in place. Above is a great example from my home of both a backloading frame as well as an older frame that still looks really good on the art it was found with. This hangs in my daughter’s room and her room is decorated in a very traditional cottage style, if we ever changed her decor to be a bit more contemporary we could update the frame- conversely keeping this frame very traditional would be a great juxtaposition in a contemporary space. Over all this frame just WORKS.
My favorite style of backloading frame is the plein air frame. Plain air is a French term meaning “in the open air” and it was the practice of artists who painted in the outdoors. This does not mean however that these frames are reserved only for landscape paintings. The plain air frame is simple but beautiful featuring a wide 3″ molding surrounded by light detail. The above frame is one I snagged from amazon and can be found HERE. If you have a standard size canvas amazon is a wonderful resource for framing as the frames are relatively inexpensive. Now, if your canvas is on the larger size or you need a custom size like this huge frame below (in the middle) you may need or want to go a custom route like I did here.
This frame was purchased HERE at pictureframes.com which is my very favorite resource for custom frames.
Next we have the front loading frame…
Front Loader: also commonly referred to as a floating frame or floater frame, receives your canvas from the front of the frame. The canvas is held in place with screws drilled through the back of the frame and into the stretcher bar (these are the wood rails within the stretched canvas). Here is a classic example of a floating frame, this piece hangs in our powder bathroom and I love how tailored the frame looks.
The frame pictured above is another custom option from pictureframes.com and can be found HERE. This is a floating frame with a shadow gap (the gap between the frame and the artwork) and these are also referred to as a Guggenheim frames and they give you the illusion of the piece “floating” with the opening of the frame. There is also backloading frames without a large shadow gap and these frames fit a bit more snug around the art piece.
This backloading frame is a fantastic budget friendly option available HERE. This frame does require the buyer to put it together but it was not difficult at all and was worth it for the price.
Lastly we have the metal frame…
Metal: In this situation the canvas slides into channels in the sides of the frame and the metal frame snuggly holds the canvas on all four sides. I do not have an example from my own home for this particular style of frame but in the photo above you can see where the canvas sits in the channel of the frame.
Within these three groups there are many styles and the online stores that I linked to are full of options but I don’t think you can go wrong with any of the styles I highlighted today. I will say that I don’t really venture into the ornate frames unless they are true vintage or antique with one exception. Hobby Lobby of all places has a very nice reproduction ornate frame and I think it is a winner if that is a style you are looking for.
You can find that HERE and above you can see how I styled that in my own home. Even frames at Hobby Lobby are not cheap but these do have sales often and if you can snag a frame during the 50% off sale that is a great deal.
Next week I’m going to share what to do when you want to frame an irregular sized piece of canvas art on a budget without going custom! Come back next Friday and check it out,
[…] week I gave a little overview of custom framing (HERE). I talked about some terms to know and where to turn for budget friendly custom frame options as […]