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| Easy Finish for Used Picture Frames |
Submitted by:
BGrant 06/19/2009 9:10 AM
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I pick up secondhand picture frames at yard sales. I try to find wooden ones that are antique or vintage, which seldom come with glass, backing or any hardware to hold stuff in the frame.
Newer budget frames generally come with some way to hold art into the frame, such as metal thingees that you bend down. With older frames (as well as new professional-quality frames)the glass, mat and backing are held in place with small nails, glazing points, or something similar. Then this gets all covered with brown paper adhered to the back surface of the frame to keep dust from getting inside the frame.
I have often struggled with the step of getting the nails or glazing points to pound or push sideways into the frame, especially if it is a hardwood frame. Glazing points are made of soft metal. And teeny weeny nails are hard to pound or push in, and have them still be flat against the backing. I tend to further complicate matters by using materials I have on hand for glass and backing. I usually cut down some broken piece of window glass, which is thicker than standard framing glass. This reduces the space I have into which I can drive a nail or glazing point. Sometimes the thick combination of glass, mat and backing leaves me NO room to nail into. I've come up with a cheap and easy alternative.
I put the glass and mat/art into the frame. Then I cut backing material the same size as the mat to fit inside the frame. I often use corrugated cardboard for this step, cutting from any clean box I have around. I want this backing to be flush with the surface of the back of the frame, so I might need more than one piece of backing to get the glass-mat-backing layers this thick. If I feel my mat/art needs some pressure to hold it snug and flat against the glass, I use corrugated cardboard and make the total thickness of the glass-mat-backing combination slightly thicker, like 1/32 of an inch beyond the surface of the frame.
Then I get a piece of the thinnest cardboard I can find (usually cold-cereal-box cardboard, okay to cut from folded parts). I cut this a quarter inch smaller than the total size of the picture frame. So if it is 10 x 13 inches to the outer edges of the frame, I cut the cardboard 9 3/4 x 12 3/4 inches. When I lay this on the back surface of the frame it is 1/8th inch smaller than the frame all around. I simply staple-gun this cardboard to the back of the frame placing a staple every couple inches. I use short staples that will not go too deep into the frame.
This final thin cardboard applies pressure to the underlying layers when using corrugated cardboard, as corrugated cardboard has some give. The thin cardboard holds everything in place. It also provides the dust barrier. The eye screws for the picture hanging wire can screw through it. And the thin cardboard doesn't show from the front or sides.
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