Frame Selection Guidance
Frame Selection Guidance
- Considerations for how wide of a frame style to choose: For the most part, deciding on how wide a frame style to choose is up to design aesthetics and personal preference. Typically the wider the moulding, the greater the emphasis or importance it gives to the item being framed. Structurally, narrow frame styles are not best suited for holding heavy contents at large sizes as it places a lot of stress on the thin frame corners. Frames can always be strengthened by reinforcing the back frame corners with thin steel angle brackets you can get from the hardware store for a few dollars.
- Considerations of depth when selecting a frame style: Every frame style has a rabbet specification denoting how deep the inside cavity of the frame is. When framing a thin print with acrylic or glass and backing and even matting, the total depth of the items going into the frame would be around 1/4" to 3/8" which nearly all frames can accommodate. When framing artwork of significant depth such as a stretched canvas, you should always compare the depth of your item with the rabbet depth of the frame style and know that if the rabbet depth is less than the depth of your item, your item will stick out from the back of the frame by the difference.
- Considerations when selecting a floater frame for a canvas: Floater Frames are for framing stretched canvases and incorporate a 1/4โ gap around the dimensions ordered. Ideally, the rabbet depth should equal the depth of your canvas, but you can select a floater frame with a deeper rabbet and simply boost the height of your canvas from the back to match by nailing or screwing strips of wood you can get from the hardware store.