Behind the Scenes: Framing on a Small Budget, Part 1

I mentioned in a recent Photo of the Week post that I’ve been busy preparing 20 pieces to be hung in a local store.  My first and biggest challenge was that I didn’t have ANY framed pieces and only a very SMALL budget.  How was I going to get 20 pieces matted and framed in 2 weeks?  Professional framing, while adding a lovely polished finish to your art, can get expensive very fast!  I’ve had some experience working as a finisher in a frame shop, so I knew it was going to be a DIY project.  After brainstorming with a friend, I settled on a solution that came out even better than I imagined!  I’ll share my process and a few tips with you, but rather than doing it in one long blog post I’m going to split it up over several posts: Sourcing and preparing the frames, assembling/finishing the frames, and finally the finished project installed.

First of all, my goal was to have professional looking framed pieces without investing money I didn’t have.  My solution was to shop for frames in second hand stores and fix them up.  This takes a bit of leg work and some imagination, but can save you lots in the end.  I had to ignore my initial feeling of distaste – they were all different colors/sizes/styles, dirty, and some had ugly art in them still.  It was a chaos of miss-matched frames!  What you need to keep in mind for this step is that you’ll be painting all of the frames to make a more cohesive look.  All you’re looking for are frames in fairly solid shape and with good glass.  Once I started looking past the grime and chaos, I could tell the frames I found were still in good shape for use.  I found a large box of frames at a local thrift shop for $3.50!  After sorting through I discovered only about half of them were usable, but it was also half of what I needed.  I continued my search and soon found the rest of the frames I needed.  End cost for the frames: $30 + 1 traded print.  (That comes out to about $1.50/frame!)

Next step was to clean all the frames.  I disassembled all of them, keeping the pieces of glass with their respective frames and discarding most everything else.  I wanted a fresh start with these frames.  Almost every frame also required cleaning on the BACK (i.e. SANDING) of the frame.  You want to make sure every bit of paper/residue/whatnot is completely removed to insure you’ll have a clean finish when you’re done.  You’ll want to do this in an area you don’t mind getting dirty or dusty.  Outside is best if the weather is decent.  Cost: sand paper, glass cleaner, time, and a bit of elbow grease (an electric sander can save you on the elbow grease and some time if you have one!).

Now the frames were ready to paint.  I decided to go with just black and white, but you could choose whatever colors suit your taste/needs.  Most of the frames needed at least 2 coats of paint (let dry between coats), other frames needed an extra 1-2 coats.  Again, this is a step you want to do outside if possible or at the very least in a well ventilated area.  I picked up some cans of spray paint at a local hardware supply store.  I decided to go with a matte finish, but you could go with glossy if you like.  Cost: $2.00/can of paint and some old newspaper to catch the over spray.

I was pretty pleased with my paint job when it was all done.  I was certainly happier seeing a more cohesive look to the group of frames!  I let them sit spread out for a full day to make sure they were completely dry.  When I revisited them, I decided that some were just a little to “flat” and others had some imperfections in the surface that became more apparent after the new paint job.  I decided some distressing was in order!  I got out my fine grit sand paper (I used the 150 I had at home) and started sanding.  Take your time and have fun at this point – its one of those steps that’s kind of hard to mess up.  One thing I tried to do was keep my sanding in one direction, following the length of each side, and stopping at each corner.  Also, make sure you clean as much dust off the frame as possible afterward – it’ll keep more out of the frame when you go to finish the piece.    Cost: more sand paper and more elbow grease (I opted to do this part by hand for more control on how much paint I removed).

Finally, the frames were ready for the artwork!  After taking a peek at what it looked like with one of my matted prints, I was so happy I decided to distress some of the frames.  It suited my style of photography perfectly!  But this is not where the project ends – the back of the frame is just as important as the front.

Stay tuned for Part 2 in this series where I’ll go into some detail on how I assembled the frames and got them ready to hang.