Black high-gloss picture frame for canvas, made to measure

A black picture frame finished in high-gloss lacquer, built and polished by hand so the black reads as depth rather than as a printed film. The moulding is 75 mm wide and profiled along its whole length, and the gloss follows that shape, so the torus beside the artwork carries a line of highlight around the work. I make every frame to measure, one at a time, alongside the rest of my black picture frames.

Moulding profile

The moulding has a wide, decisive profile. Beside the artwork it opens with a half-round hollow, which rises through a step to a narrow torus, the highest point of the moulding, and then drops through a second step into a deep half-round cove. Closer to the outer edge the profile closes with fine stepped detailing. The whole surface carries an even, deep gloss black.

Specification

• Style: contemporary, profiled moulding in a lacquered high gloss
• Finish: black, high gloss, sealed with lacquer and polished to a mirror-like surface
• Moulding width: 75 mm
• Moulding thickness, face to back: 42 mm
• Rabbet: 7 mm wide × 20 mm deep
• Material: low-tannin timber of the kind used in museum and conservation framing
• Corner joinery: mitred corners reinforced with wooden splines
• Glass, backing and mounts: available as add-ons
• Mounting and hanging: sprung clips as standard, cord for hanging
• Colour: black as shown, or another shade from my own paint range to order
• Suited to: oil and acrylic on canvas, stretched canvas, fine-art prints, photography

Enter the dimensions of the artwork itself. I build the frame 2–3 mm larger as a technical clearance, and the moulding overlaps the edge of the work by roughly 4–5 mm.

What it frames, and where it sits

A lacquered black frame is at its most convincing around oil and acrylic on canvas, where the gloss answers the varnish on the painting itself and the two surfaces read as one piece of work. The same frame carries fine-art prints and photography well, giving them the seriousness of a gallery wall, and the width of the moulding gives a large canvas a proper border rather than a rim. If you are weighing up widths and constructions for a stretched canvas, my guide to types of picture frames for canvas paintings sets out the choices.

In an interior the gloss reads as contemporary rather than classical. It holds its own against pale plaster, dark paint and glass, and in a room with directional light the profile becomes a moving line of reflection around the picture.

Workmanship and finishing

The profile is routed from a single board on the workshop machine. Corners are cut at 45 degrees and reinforced with wooden splines, a conservation method in which a tongue of timber is set across the joint; it keeps the mitre dimensionally stable through the seasonal movement of a heated room. The splines go in before any finishing.

A gloss this deep is made under the black rather than on top of it. The moulding is grounded and sanded flat first, and on a curved face that matters more than on a flat one: any ripple left in the ground shows up in the reflection. The black is then built in coats, sealed with lacquer and polished to a high gloss. Every frame is finished by hand, so slight variation in the reflection along a long side belongs to the process.

What sets it apart from mass production

Ready-made gloss frames are generally MDF or a wrapped moulding under a printed foil or a single sprayed film, supplied in fixed sizes. Here the moulding is timber, the ground is prepared by hand and the gloss is built and polished in the workshop, which is what gives the reflection its depth. The frame is cut for one specific artwork, and the corners are jointed rather than only glued. If you want the same black in a quieter surface, there is a black picture frame with a deep cavetto in the workshop, waxed to a satin sheen instead of lacquered.

Functionality

The frame is supplied without glass, as a setting for a painting on a stretcher. The rabbet is 20 mm deep, which takes an ordinary stretcher, so it is worth measuring the thickness of yours before you order. For work on paper, prints, photographs and watercolour, the same frame can be completed with glass, a mount and a backing.

Every frame I make can also be built without a rabbet, as a floating frame, with the canvas held clear of the moulding so a narrow shadow gap runs around the work. There is more on that construction in my guide to the floating picture frame for canvas art.

Complete framing – additional options

Every frame I make can be completed with full archival and museum-quality framing: anti-reflective UV-filtering glass (four classes to choose from), acid-free museum mat board, spacers wrapped in acid-free paper and a Dibond backing. This kind of mounting protects the work from light, acids and distortion. I set out the full glass and material specification on a separate page: archival and museum framing for paintings and photographs. All components are available at extra cost, as an individual quote on request.

Mounting and hanging

I hold the painting in the frame with sprung clips that turn aside when you change the work, which makes the frame easy to handle. On request I supply screwed brass plates instead, loose with their screws, for a permanent fixing you fit yourself. For hanging, I attach cord as standard, in portrait or landscape orientation; a single D-ring on request.

Ordering made to measure

The base price shown on the site is the price per running metre of moulding. The perimeter of the painting is not the full length the frame needs: corners cut at 45 degrees take extra length, and the wider the moulding, the more they take. The calculator accounts for the full moulding consumption with corners and for any options you choose, so you only need to enter the dimensions of your painting to within 0.1 cm. The calculator handles formats up to 120 × 80 cm, and I make larger sizes to individual order. The lead time is 20 to 30 working days.