“If women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.” ~ Red Green

You don’t have to be a master craftsperson to build your own picture frames; a few basic skills and tools will get you there.

A lifetime ago, in my early twenties, I worked as a cabinet maker. For a short time, I built log homes. Though my career path led elsewhere, my lifelong love-affair with wood remained, reflected in furniture refinishing, home renovation … and picture frame construction.

Recycled Douglas fir

A decade or so ago (while recovering from cancer treatment) I came upon a trove of Douglas fir, in the form of huge beams that, for nearly 80-years, had supported the industrial buildings of Ocean Falls, a mill town on the remote northern coast of British Columbia. As with many communities dependent on boom-and-bust resource industries in the province, Ocean Falls eventually became a ghost town.

An entrepreneur saw an opportunity in the first-growth, tight-grain timber, which is at a premium after a century of indiscriminate liquidation. He transported a few tonnes south to Victoria, where carpenters eagerly lined up to purchase it. I’ve seen it used around the city in everything from kitchen cabinets to restaurant bars.

My order was relatively modest: a few hundred feet, milled into 1X6-inch strips. With the help of friend and master carpenter Jack Moss, who owns a well-equipped workshop, the raw lumber was turned, over two days, into 1,000 linear feet of moulding.

Milling raw dimensional lumber

Frame design

Milled stock

I opted to create a clean, contemporary frame — 1¼-inches deep, with a ¾-inch front profile. The complete design was inspired by “museum” frames I’d seen at Vancouver Art Gallery. The resulting profile is anything but fussy. To my mind, it complements rather than competes with the content, and is a perfect match for photography.

These back-mounting frames make changing artwork a snap, with a second frame component (made from store-bought 1½ X ½-inch [net] kiln-dried fir) that slides into the rear of the main profile, secured by stainless steel screws. CoroplastⓇ sheet is sandwiched between the artwork and the rear frame. It can can be attached to the rear frame, if you like, with acid-free glue. They are compatible with conservation methods. ←See the video at this link for “live view” of these frames.

If you don’t anticipate changing the contents of the frame, brads or framer’s points can be used to secure artwork and backing board. 

Tools and supplies

If you have access to a modest tool kit, it really isn’t that hard to master the frame-builder’s art. In fact, good results can be had using just a table saw, mitre saw (with fine blade) and a few hand tools. Look for tutorials on YouTube.

Whether you manufacture your own moulding profile or buy it ready-made, to assemble a frame you’ll also need a small collection of carpenters tools and supplies, including: tape-measure, set-square, lightweight hammer, drill, nail setter, screwdriver, wood glue, etc.

You can construct a wooden squaring jig on a workbench, or opt for something like a speed-clamp set, as I did.

Corners will need reinforcement, in addition to gluing. You can pre-drill and insert nails (set, then fill holes) or spring for a V-nail driver.

Cutting rabbets

Making Raw Moulding

Always use safety equipment, including eye protection when working with power tools.

Begin by deciding the width and depth of your profile. buy stock or cut to desired dimensions. Pre-sand.

To make picture moulding from raw stock, you’ll need to cut a channel, called a rabbet, in the back of the profile (where glass, artwork, backing board, etc. go) with a table saw (a router can also be used). A dado set makes this procedure simple, but two cuts, at 90° to each other will lead to the same result.

Use a push-stick to drive wood through the saw. A guide (see example in photo above) will keep wood against the adjustable saw fence. Without a guide, the wood tends to wander away from the dado blade. Alternately, keep pressure against the outside edge of the stock with second push-stick. Here’s a good video on cutting rabbets with a table saw that can be adapted to picture moulding.

Of course, ready-made frame moulding can be purchased at many outlets. Google it and see.

Mitre jig

Corner cutting & assembly

Accuracy of the 45° corners is paramount. Use a fine blade in the mitre saw and if you plan to make more than a couple of frames, invest the time to build a guide rail (see photo above) for your saw. This will improve accuracy and allow you to set up a production-line of sorts. A stop (nothing more than a scrap of wood) can be clamped at marked point for desired length of sides. This will enable repeatable, consistent cuts for standardized frames.

Nail and glue the frame sections together, then clamp them, checking with an accurate set square. See assembly tool suggestions above.

If I were a carpenter

Finishing

Fill any visible nail holes and imperfections with matching filler. Use a fine finishing sandpaper to prepare the moulding. Dust well. The final step is a personal choice. Wood can be stained and varnished, or painted. My preference leans toward a few coats of satin (water-base) varnish. For black and white photography, try a black stain that lets grain show through, sealed with matte varnish.

The video embedded below gives a good outline of the technique behind building a good picture frame from wood, using a sliding mitre saw. Though the instructor does not use actual frame moulding, the methodology is all there, including construction of a guide rail (similar to the one seen in my photo above) to ensure consistency and accuracy.

Incidentally, photos in this post (but for topmost and frame triptych) were made with my first digital camera: a 6 MP Fuji S2 Pro.