Tea set from HorchowWe have finally figured out how to frame the posters that we order. As you know, they are quite reasonable in price when on sale (see Lovely Whatevers for a choice of good paintings)
After several trips to places like Michaels and other framing places, resulting in quotes never below $250.00 for mats and frames and labor, my daughter bought a poster frame, wooden, at WalMart for $20.00. She took out the cardboard backing and covered it completely in a piece of fabric( from the fabric stash we have vowed to use before we die). Most of the poster frames are cheaper than $20.00 so you can still feel you have a bargain. It is better to put them in a poster frame, if that is all you can afford, than to leave them rolled up in the tube, or laying about, as I was told by the framers.
To that, she centered the picture and used folded tape to attach it. Then she put the glass in, and mounted the entire thing and it looks great. An advantage was that I could then use a piece of matching fabric for the table below it. When my staff wakes up I will share a picture of it.
My original idea was to see if the cardboard backing was white, and to use that for the matting, but it was just grey pulp board, so it had to be covered. I thought I would share this idea with those who are ordering these beautiful pictures and then find out how expensive they are to frame.
9 comments:
What a lovely idea! I had thought of purchasing these several times, but I had seen how expensive frames were and decided to save my pennies. I might just have to try this. I'm excited to see the photo!
Oh, and the link to Lovely Whatevers is working just fine from your sidebar, but not from the link in your post.
Lauren
It has been fixed, and will also get the picture posted soon.
That is a very good cost saving idea for framing :)
I'd like to add a couple of other ideas. I have actually found nice frames in plastic and wood in dollar stores with pictures I cared nothing for. Walmart type stores often have thrifty art type prints in attractive enough frames. Just shop FRAME and don't feel obligated to keep any art inside these inexpensive frames. Wooden frames can quickly and easily be painted in a color to complement a color in the print you intend to use OR you can paint it gold or silver. White with some gilting of gold is pretty too.
Estate sales, tag sales, thrift stores and yard sales sometimes bring wonderful inexpensive frame finds. A beautiful but inexpensive mat can be had from leftover bits of wallpaper. The thicker wallpaper with embossed designs could be very beautiful as a mat and could even be painted once mounted onto a firm backing. If you don't have large enough pieces, you could mitre the corners of the mat in the same way a frame corner is mitered.
Old mirrors with beautiful frames or in interesting shapes can have a 2nd life as a picture frame. The mat could be affixed to the mirror glass in the shape of the frame and the picture lined up nicely in the center. A picture frame doesn't have to be rectangular or oval or round. It can be any shape :)
If you want to learn to be handy, you can buy room moldings meant to go around ceilings or as chair rail and turn them into your own frames. Many stores will cut the pieces for you if you know what dimensions you want. The men who work there know how to turn the wood to get that mitered corner, but with practice you can learn to do it yourself at home or a handy husband, brother or friend might help you out. Most home stores will cut glass for you, too :) You will need some sort of backing for your home made frame and a small ridge for your glass to drop into, but you can buy thin strips of wood and glue them into place with your hot glue gun. You can DO IT! Just look at how a frame is put together and think of how you could easily do the same thing with scrap pieces of wood as the back and inner parts of the frame and then use pretty yet still inexpensive moldings. Even a flat frame could be made by gluing and nailing wooden strips together, then put a piece of shaped trim onto the top or around the outer edges to pretty it up.
How about using old pieces of window casing or base trim woodwork to make picture frames? You can buy lots of that in preformed plastic for very cheap or use scrap pieces. We tend to always have some around our house if I dig around. I think the Victorian style wood work for around doors with the pretty corner treatments would be a beautiful frame for floral pictures. They sell these in bundles at our area Lowe's store for a fairly reasonable price and one door ways worth could make at least a couple of frames or more depending on the size of the print.
Also, not all pictures have to be matted. I bought a pretty print in a simple frame and it has no matting and looks fine. The print itself is what draws the attention.
My sister bought some prints for her daughters room that I had in my room when I was a girl. The frames were cheap wooden frames which she painted white and then she hot glued rick rack, ribbons and laces around each of the 4 pictures, choosing one color from each particular print to make the frame stand out. My favorite is a daisy style lace with yellow in it that goes around a picture of a little girl with golden yellow hair. The effect is just adorable for a little girl's room and she said she bought all the trims on sale as remnant pieces because it didn't take much to go around the front of the frame.
My last idea is something I probably couldn't do, but a skilled artist could hang a picture onto a flat backing and then paint the frame actually onto the wall around the picture in one of those "trompe d'loile" style paintings. I saw a picture of a woman's home who had painted those "faux" paintings all through her home and it was very charming. Where she didn't have a window but wanted one, she painted an outdoor scene and all the woodwork and hardware of a window :)
I just admire that kind of creativity!
Thanks, Lydia, for sharing your daughter's handy and thrifty idea.
Can't wait to see the pictures!
The poster frames have a piece of plastic, instead of glass, that, when photographed, make the picture warped. We are happy with it at home and enjoy the picture, and can see it just fine, but it will not show up in a photograph. That would be one thing to consider: get glass, and if possible, the non-glare glass. The plastic contains all kinds of movements and colors that do something strange to the look of the picture. If we posted the picture, all you would see would be a picture of us taking the picture.
Oh well,
I'm just glad you are enjoying it :)
Maybe one of these days you will find a frame the right size with glass and then you can share it with us.
Thanks for trying!
Thank you for the inspiration to frame my own prints! I will have to try this. Expensive framing costs has most always kept me from buying unframed prints.
Thanks for trying!
I will just have to try it at home to see how it works. :o)
To build on Kimber's wonderful DIY ideas, a story: we brought a special portrait foolishly in our airplane luggage for a gift, and of course the glass was broken when we arrived. We were surprised and pleased to find that the local Michael's (or possibly it was an AC Moore) cut a new piece of glass to the proper size for only $3 total. So if you wish to create your own frames, the glass can be easily had for not too much from a framing shop if you know your dimensions. This was about an 11x14 piece for cost reference. I hope this helps!
I can't imagine spending $250+ to have something put in a frame! I'd be creating it myself - whether from something cheap or right from odds and ends... Kimber's ideas are awesome up there! :-)
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