In this video I demonstrate how to assemble a wood frame kit for a painting. The supplies that I used in the video are listed below.
Affiliate Disclosure- the following links to Blick Art Materials are affiliate links which means I earn a commission when you click on them and make a purchase.
FRAME
Wood Frame shrsl.com/367bh
POINT DRIVERS
Fletcher point driver. This is the yellow one I used in the video. It uses flexible points which are very convenient when you want to reuse the frame. shrsl.com/367bo
Fletcher FrameMate: this is a manual point driver. It uses rigid points so you won't be able to bend the points back to remove the painting. This might not matter to you. You can always just remove the points, replace the painting and then drive more points to hold it in place.
shrsl.com/367by
Fletcher PushMate: this is the most affordable solution but it's entirely manual. The points are rigid so you can't bend them back to remove the painting. It's a good solution though if you're just starting out or only plan on framing a few things.
shrsl.com/367c2
PICTURE HANING WIRE
Plastic coated stainless steel picture hanging wire shrsl.com/367c5
RUBBER BUMPER PADS
3M self adhesive rubber bumper pads shrsl.com/367ca
CANVAS PANELS
Raymar smooth portrait canvas panels. These are the panels that I use most often. They have a melamine backing that makes them more rigid and less prone to warping than regular canvas panels. shrsl.com/367cc
PICTURE HANGING HARDWARE
Picture hanging hooks shrsl.com/367ci
Please remember to wear safety glasses when using tools!
The wood frames that I use in the video are easy to put together.You don't need to do any sawing yourself, the frames come in a variety of lengths that are ready to be assembled.
You don't too many tools to assemble a DIY picture framing kit like the one I use in the video. Just a hammer and some sort of point driver. There's a wide range of point drivers that you can use. The manual point drivers can be very affordable. You also need wood glue, picture hanging wire, rubber pads (optional), and some type of point driver.
The kit comes with plastic thumbnails that you use to add strength to the corners. They call them thumbnails because you're supposed to be able to push them in using your thumbs. I find that you have to use a hammer to drive them into the slots in the corners.
Before you do that though, you want to use apply wood glue in a thin layer to the inside edges of the corners. I work on one corner at a time, except for the last two which I glue at the same time.
Towards the end of the video, I show how you can switch the painting with a new one in under 20 seconds. That's why I use a point driver to frame my canvas panels. It's so much convenient to do it yourself than it is to take it to a picture framing shop. It's also much more affordable too!
I use eye hooks and picture framing wire to hang my paintings. I demonstrate how I attach the wire to the frame.
At the end I show that a regular canvas fits into the frame too so you can use these frames to frame the canvases that are 3/4 "deep.