White box picture frame, made to measure in white or black

This is the plainest frame I make: a square box section, 20 mm wide across the face and 30 mm thick, painted in white or in black. There is no ornament on it and no gilding, so nothing on the moulding competes with the picture inside it. A white box picture frame of this width suits contemporary painting, works on paper and photographs where the frame is meant to give the work an edge rather than a setting. The rest of the range in this colour is in white picture frames.

Frame profile

The face is flat across the full 20 mm width of the moulding and meets the side at a sharp right angle, which gives the profile its plain box section. The side carries the full 30 mm thickness of the moulding and is painted in the same colour, so it reads as a clean band when the frame is seen from an angle.

Specification

• Style: plain box section, undecorated
• Finish: cellulose paint with a satin sheen, resistant to moisture and scratching
• Colours: white or black, selected from the order menu
• Moulding width: 20 mm
• Moulding thickness (face to back): 30 mm
• Rabbet: 7 mm wide x 20 mm deep
• Material: low-tannin timber of the kind used in museum work and art conservation
• Corners: mitred at 45 degrees, reinforced with wooden splines, sanded and painted after joining
• Glass and backing: available to order, or as full archival framing
• Holding the work: spring clips fitted as standard
• Hanging: cord, portrait or landscape selected from the order menu
• Suits: canvas on a stretcher, painting boards, panels, works on paper

I make the frame to the size of your particular work. Enter the dimensions of the artwork itself in the calculator, not the size of frame you want. The frame is built 2 to 3 mm larger than the figures you give, so the work goes in without forcing, which leaves the moulding covering roughly 4 to 5 mm of the edge of the work all round.

Which artworks and interiors it suits

A 20 mm box moulding is narrow, so it sits well on small and medium formats where a wide frame would crowd the image: studies in oil and acrylic, gouache, prints, drawings, photographs and diplomas. On canvas the 20 mm rabbet takes a standard stretcher without the frame standing proud of the back, and the box side gives the assembly a defined edge. I have written elsewhere about how the different types of picture frames for canvas paintings behave with stretched work.

White reads as a gallery frame and holds its own against a white or off-white wall by way of the shadow the 30 mm side casts. Black is the harder, more graphic option and is better on strongly coloured or high-contrast images; the same profile in black sits alongside the rest of my black picture frames. Both work in modern interiors, in hanging groups and in gallery installations where a set of frames has to look identical.

How it is made and finished

I cut each length to the dimensions of your work, mitre the corners at 45 degrees and reinforce them with wooden splines. The frame is then sanded as one piece, and only after that does it get painted. That order matters: on a factory frame the moulding is finished first and cut afterwards, so the mitre stays visible as a line across the face and the paint stops at the cut. Here the paint runs over the joint, and the corner reads as a continuous surface.

The paint is a cellulose finish with a satin sheen, resistant to moisture and to scratching. It is a flat, even colour without patination or wear, which is the point of this model.

How it differs from mass production

A shop frame is assembled from a pre-finished length of moulding cut to one of a handful of standard sizes, with the corner joint left as it falls. This frame is cut to your dimensions to the millimetre, joined with splines rather than staples alone, and painted as a finished object. The result is a frame whose corners are as clean as its sides and whose opening fits the work rather than nearly fitting it.

Functionality

The frame is supplied without glass as standard, as a mount for canvas on a stretcher. The rabbet is 20 mm deep, which takes ordinary and gallery-depth stretchers as well as boards and panels. If you would rather the work sat inside the frame with a gap around it and no rabbet covering its edge, I make the same moulding as a floating frame, in which the canvas is held clear of the sides.

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

The artwork is held in the rabbet by spring clips, fitted to the back of the frame in the workshop. They rotate aside, so one work can come out and another go in without tools. Brass plates with screws are available on request instead: they are supplied loose with the screws, you fit them yourself once the work is in, and the fixing is permanent. This is not a menu choice, so add a note to the order if you want the brass plates.

Hanging orientation, portrait or landscape, is selected from the order menu, and the frame is prepared for that orientation only. Hanging cord is fitted as standard. A single D-ring hanger is available on request.

Made to measure

The price shown is the price per running metre of moulding. The perimeter of the picture is not the whole length a frame needs: the 45° mitres take additional length at each corner, and the wider the moulding, the more they take. The calculator works out the full consumption including corners, along with any add-ons you select.

Measure the artwork itself, width and height, to the nearest millimetre, and type those figures in. The calculator handles artworks up to 120 × 80 cm; anything larger is made to individual order, so send me the dimensions and I will price it. Lead time is 20 to 30 working days.