White gloss picture frame for canvas and oil paintings

A white gloss picture frame with a wide shaped moulding, a rounded crest near the painting and a deep hollow through the centre of the face, made to the size of your painting. The face is sprayed in white lacquer and built up to a high gloss, so light travels evenly along the length instead of breaking up over brush marks. It is a modern frame with some substance to it, which is why it holds a large oil painting as comfortably as it holds a photograph or a print.

The moulding profile

From the artwork side the face rises in a concave sweep and passes through a fine step into a rounded crest, the highest point of the moulding. Behind the crest the profile drops over a narrow shelf into a wide, deep half-round hollow that takes up the centre of the face. The surface then rises and flattens into three narrow bands separated by steps, which carry the profile down to the outer edge.

Specification

• Style: wide shaped moulding, rounded crest and deep central hollow, modern gloss finish
• Finish: sprayed white lacquer, high gloss or satin
• Moulding width: 72 mm
• Moulding thickness (face to back): 40 mm
• Rabbet: 7 mm wide by 20 mm deep, which takes a standard stretcher
• Timber: low tannin timber of the kind used in museum work and art conservation
• Corner joints: mitred at 45 degrees and reinforced with wooden splines, before finishing
• Glazing, mount board and backing: available on request, priced individually
• Holding and hanging: sprung clips as standard, brass plates on request; cord fitted, portrait or landscape
• Suits: oils and acrylics on stretched canvas, prints, photographs, works on paper
• Lead time: 20–30 working days

I make the frame to the measurements of the artwork itself. The rabbet is cut 2 to 3 mm larger than the work so it drops in without forcing, and the front edge of the moulding covers about 4 to 5 mm of the face all round.

Which paintings and interiors it suits

The section was drawn with stretched canvases in mind. The rabbet takes a standard stretcher, and the width of the moulding holds its own against a large, strongly coloured painting instead of disappearing beside it. It works equally on acrylics, prints and photographs, where the white face acts as a margin between the image and the wall. If you are still weighing up how a canvas should be framed at all, I set out the usual options in types of picture frames for canvas paintings.

In an interior it settles into modern and gallery style rooms, on pale walls where the gloss picks up the light, and just as readily into older rooms where a white frame lifts a dark painting. The rest of my white picture frames run from chalky hand painted surfaces through to this sprayed gloss. The same profile in black is here: black picture frame in high gloss.

Making and finishing

I cut the moulding to length, mitre the corners at 45 degrees and reinforce each joint with a wooden spline set into the mitre. The frame is closed and squared before any finish goes near it, so the corner is a joint in the timber rather than a line under the paint.

The white is sprayed rather than brushed, built up in coats with the surface flatted back between them. A wide hollow magnifies everything: a brush leaves ridges in it that a gloss finish then advertises. Spraying is what keeps the reflection continuous across the hollow and around the mitre. The satin version uses the same paint system at a lower sheen, for rooms where full gloss would be too much.

How this differs from a mass produced frame

Ready made white frames are usually foil wrapped or finished flat on narrow, straight sections, because a wide moulding with a deep hollow is slow to finish evenly. This one is routed from timber with a low tannin content, of the kind used in museum work and art conservation, joined with splines rather than staples, and finished after joining so the gloss carries around the corner instead of stopping at it. It is also made to your painting rather than to a standard size, which is usually what decides whether a frame looks right on the wall.

Functionality

The frame is supplied without glazing and prepared for a stretched canvas, with a rabbet 20 mm deep. Glass, mount board and backing are available on request and priced individually. The same section can also be made without a rabbet, as a floating frame for canvas art, with the painting standing free inside the frame and a shadow gap around it.

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 fit permanent, screwed brass plates instead. 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. Lead time is 20–30 working days.