How to Frame an Oil Painting
Most oil paintings need a frame to protect the canvas and allow you to hang the painting on the wall. A well-chosen frame can also complement any oil painting. It adds value and enhances the beauty of the painting. With a few simple tools, you can frame your oil painting yourself.
Most oil paintings need a frame to protect the canvas and allow you to hang the painting on the wall. A well-chosen frame can also complement any oil painting. It adds value and enhances the beauty of the painting. With a few simple tools, you can frame your oil painting yourself.
Things You'll Need
- Frame
- Frame clips, small brads or glazier points
- Hammer or screwdriver
- Saw tooth hook hangers or hanging wire and eye screws
- Choose a frame that suits the art. To pick the most complimentary frame consider the scale, weight, and color. If the canvas wood frame, called the stretcher bar, is more than 1 or 2 inches deep, you will need to select frame moulding that is deep enough to accommodate the stretcher bar.
- Decide on a mat, liner or fillet. These are the decorative pieces that go between the painting and the frame. If you choose to add a matte, liner or glazing, it should not touch the paint on the canvas. The moulding on a correctly sized frame is designed to prevent this contact.
- Slide the painting into the frame from the back. Be careful not to damage the art as you place it into the frame. Remove any hanging wire that may interfere with placing the painting.
- Secure the frame to the stretcher bar. Use frame clips, small brads or glazier points driven into the frame. Attach at multiple points along the frame to hold the canvas in the frame.
- Attach the hanging hardware. Choose between saw tooth picture hangers or hanging wire. For saw tooth picture hangers, place a hook hanger at each top corner of a large painting. Smaller paintings need only a single hook hanger at the top center. If you are using hanging wire, put one eye screw approximately 1/5th of the way down the back of the painting on each side.
- Thread the hanging wire through both eyes, coiling the wire end around the wire itself at each end. Leave enough slack to form a small triangle when you pick the painting up by the wire. It should be short enough, however, that the top of the wire is just below the top of the canvas. Once your hardware is attached, the framed painting is ready to be hung.