Handmade Frames

What do you get when you combine scrap wood, leftover wood stain, and power tools? Why, handmade art frames, of course! That’s exactly what my husband and I made for these mini 4x4” landscapes that I painted earlier this year. (To see a video of all six of these landscapes being painted, click here!)

This was my first time painting on canvases this small, and since they are so tiny and cute, I thought they would be perfect for trying out handmade looking frames. These are not your typical polished and clean frames with perfect 45 degree angle cuts at the corners. I didn’t want to go for that look with these paintings anyway. The more rustic and reclaimed wood look really suited these small but chunky canvases.

Step 1: Cut the wood!

I’m no expert when it comes to power tools, but I did help my husband in cutting the pieces of wood for the frames. (It was a lot of fun!) For each painting, we cut two short sides (four inches, just like the canvases), and two long sides (about five inches, depending on the width of the wood). The long pieces would span the length of the canvas plus the short pieces on each side, creating a butt joint at the corners. It took a little bit of trial and error to get the measurements just right, especially since each canvas and each type of wood were slightly different.

Step 2: Stain the Wood!

Some of the wood we used was taken from finished pieces of furniture, but most of the wood was unfinished and needed to be stained. Fortunately, there were several stains to choose from that the previous owner of our house had left in the garage. I experimented with all of them to get a variety of color options.

Step 3: Assemble the frames!

Because the canvases are pretty thick, we were able to use a nail gun to nail the frame pieces directly to the outside of the canvas. It was so much fun to pick out which frames would go on which paintings. They all turned out super cute, and several of them sold at the Blue Ridge Spring Art in the Park Festival this year! A few of them are still available for purchase here!