The first piece I wanted to frame was this large (30″ x 25″) oil painting of an old country church that I’d bought at a thrift store for a few dollars.
The painting was done on a canvas panel, and it was pretty beat up, especially around the corners. I wanted to give it a really simple, utilitarian frame — nothing fancy.
I had another painting with just the kind of frame I wanted to make, so I used that as a model.
To start, I dug a couple of spare 1 x 2’s out of the stash in my husband’s workshop and laid the painting on top of them to mark trim lines. My plan was to attach 1 x 2’s all the way around the back of the painting first and then use them to nail the frame onto.
I trimmed the 1 x 2’s with a jigsaw.
Then I flipped the painting over and attached the pieces to the back of the painting using wood glue. (My husband was doubtful that the glue would hold once I started hammering the frame onto it, but as he didn’t suggest an alternative way to accomplish what I needed to, I kept going — and, just to be safe, I doubled down on the amount of glue I was using.)
I let the glue dry overnight; then I flipped the painting back over again.
I dug through the husband’s stash of leftover wood once more until I found four pieces of lath that weren’t (too) warped to use as the frame.
I trimmed the lath down to size with the jigsaw, just like I did with the 1 x 2’s. Then I painted the pieces with some white chalk paint that I had left over from a previous project.
I lined the painted lath up to the side of the painting and drilled holes before driving nails in (to keep the wood from splitting). Then I crossed my fingers that the glue would hold as I started pounding.
It did.
Here’s the painting, all framed and waiting to be hung.
Tomorrow, I’ll show you the other picture I framed. And then hopefully, I’ll actually get things up on the wall someday and can blog about that, too.