How to FRAME a PAINTING CANVAS...

Choosing the molding color

 

If You have a painting to frame...

Drawings and paintings on this site are sold unframed.

Indeed, choosing a framework is a matter of personal feeling and the choice of its color is based on colors we found in the art-work, of your home ...

It is not possible to advise or provide generic picture frames for a tasteful decoration of your home!

 

General principles ... to be broken!

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You have just purchased a oil or acrylic painting on canvas ... The probleme now is how to frame it.

Do not hurry! Take time to think! Until you choose a frame you can perfectly hang up the frame as is on the wall, just to have time to see if this painting fits well with the colors of your interior.

Here are some basic principles that have nothing immutable ... and nobody forces you to followthem because the choice of a frame depends on your sensitivity and your personal taste.

 

Choose a style of molding according to the style of your canvas!

As many an old painting can be highlighted by a gilded and worked mouldings, as a modern canvas must be satisfied with a sober and clean lines frame...

But just visit museums to understand that tortured and carved picture frames are now completely obsolete ... modern interiors require greater simplicity and bearness ...

 

Choose the frame color first to fit with the canvas !

Generally, it is better to choose as the frame color that is not the dominant color of the painting ... If you are unsure of your choice, choose a neutral and simple color .

In the example below, we chose to frame the dominant blue color of the art work... The juxtaposition of all these shades of blue is not very attractive:

it would have been preferable to choose a neutral color, a beige supported (or pink or even an off-white) color reminiscent of some of the houses located in the center of the art :

If, despite everything - the rules are made to be broken! - You decide to stay in the dominant blue color, an inner frame* clear neutral color (white, cream or titanium) which will ensure the transition between the different shades of the dominant color...

Of course, you will also pay attention of the environment in which the framework will be placed: if the frame is appropriate for the painting but do not fit the environment ... is without doubt that the painting itself does not fit this place!

* A inner frame is a small frame fixed inside the main frame and the color clear the transition between the colors of the painting and those of the frame itself.

 

Choose a size of moulding adapted to the canvas size.

Always remember that the picture frame is intended to highlight the art-work it contains ... It must attract attention while remaining unobtrusive so as not to distort the art work.

Therefore, especially in the case of modern paintings, you should not exaggerate the width of the molding.

Many modern galleries prefer the "American box" (floater frame) sober and simple: it comes in several colors, gilded edges or not. This is an excellent solution, of inexpensive narrow frame molding :

And you can easily build it by yourself...

Here is an example cons not to reproduce ... where the picture frame takes precedence over painting:

The molding is much too broad and gilding crushes tones of this painting in Venice ... certainly we would have preferred it ... more sober and discreet

(Notice the choice of color "dusty rose" for the moulding to match the color of the background buildings)

 

Finally ...

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If you apply these 3 simple rules for the choice of the molding: style, color and size, you will not make a decorative mistake. But remenber, rules are made to be broken and if you feel another harmony, do not hesitate to do as you feel !

But maybe you want to build your own picture frame? To get exactly what you want? Please visit the pages of the menu item "wood made" ...Floater Frames as an example?

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