Make Wood Frames For Large Art Or Posters, step by step

This is it. My most favoritest art ever. Yes I know that is a big statement. A big statement with a non-word, at that. But it is all deserved because I have framed and hung my bike art and I am in love. Not only with how the final product looks, but how straightforward and low-cost it was to achieve. So forgive me if my enthusiasm is more annoying than usual today. I am a man with a enjoy of all things bike and all things straightforward. Wait, that sounds wrong…

So here is that wall before with my retail display cast-offs simply pitifully taped to the wall.

And here they are all framed up. In frames that only cost us $14 to make ($7 each!) and whose most challenging step was finding the patience to let the wood stain dry before I could at last hang them. Seriously, they were not hard to make in the least.

Here is how it all went down. Er, up. My $14 was spent on four boards of 6 foot long 1 x 2″ pine from Home Depot.

Since we were building two frames, that meant we needed four boards of the same length (for the sides of each of the two frames) and four shorter boards of the same length (for the top and bottom of each of the two frames). To make sure I cut the four sides of my frames (and the four tops/bottoms of my frames) evenly, I clamped four boards together and cut them all at the same time (you could have your boards cut to size at the store if you do not have access to a saw, btw).

So two clamped cuts later I had four long boards (for the two sides of the two frames) and four short boards (for the top and bottoms of each of the two frames).

The short boards were cut to 1-inch longer than the width of the poster to create some overlap (i.e. each poster is 27″ wide, so I made the boards 28″ wide). The side boards were cut to 1-inch longer MINUS the width of the two top boards (i.e. each poster is 39″ tall + 1″ – 0.75″ for the top board – 0.75″ for the bottom board = 38.5″). This will make a bit more sense soon, I promise…

I chose not to complicate matters by doing mitered corners and went for more of a rough and raw look. So attaching the boards into a rectangular frame was fairly straightforward and fully miter-saw free (seriously, if you had Home Depot cut your four boards to the right sizes, all you’d need to do is the following part at home).

I clamped the pieces tightly together and screwed through the top and bottom boards into the side boards. Oh and it did assist to make pilot holes first with a small drill bit so my wood did not split when the screws went in.

Here is what my two frames looked like once everything was screwed together. I did not do anything to cover up my screwheads since I figured not many people will be staring at the tops or bottom of the frames once they are hung (you’d have to be fairly dang tall or lying on the floor to see them). Plus I was going for the raw and imperfect look anyway. A bike’s gears show, so what are a few screws in a few not-easily-seen locations?

I contemplated leaving the wood raw (since that is how we originally saw them at store) but Sherry and I agreed they’d look better in a dark stain (we used Minwax’s Dark Walnut since we still had a small can leftover from some project long ago) to tie into a few other wood items in the room like a wood side table and some wooden art over the daybed. Once the stain dried, I put a coat of Safecoat polyurethane over it and patiently waited another night (torture I tell you) to put everything together and hang them up.

With everything dry, I laid my posters face down on the back of the frames. The inch I brought in to each side meant the poster sat on the frame comfortably without being visible along the edges. My poster was printed on fairly sturdy paper (it is similar to thick poster board) so I was able to simply staple it around the edge in a few spots as a means of attaching the art to the frame. If you are trying this with a poster on thinner paper you might want to consider gluing it to a piece of sturdier poster board to make it less flimsy (perhaps use a glue like rubber cement or spray adhesive that will not make the poster wrinkle when it dries?).

Once I put a few staples around the edges (I did about four per side, but depending how stiff your paper is you might need more) I attached some plain picture frame hanging hardware through the poster and into the wood of the frame – so it would not show through on the front or anything:

Then those babies were ready to hang. Cue the angels. Part the clouds. I am in bike art heaven. Oh yes, and ignore the way-too-airy table and chairs. Once we have a chunky storage piece of furniture (we have our minds set on something, so we should have that update for you soon) the bike art will have the pleasant grounded and proportionate look that it deserves.

Seriously though, I am fairly stoked about how they turned out. Obviously the art itself (featuring a deconstructed bike by Public Bikes) is the real star. But I like to think that my frames have at least earned a “best supporting actor” nomination. And heck, they are honored simply to be nominated.

We are both truly glad with our decision to use the boards so they raised off against the wall a little bit – giving the poster some dimension instead of simply being big and flat. That thick frame feels uncommon and artful – and thanks to the posters being so firm and un-delicate, we do not anticipate any issues with there being an absence of glass. They are simply like poster board so we think they’ll hold up for a pleasant long time (of course we can consistently add glass or plexi if we change our minds, but for now we enjoy them fully unobstructed).

Then I had an impromptu make out session with them.

Sherry likely will not have to witness that again (I cannot make any promises), but I am glad I can see these babies from the window over our kitchen sink. So she may catch me gazing lovingly at them while doing dishes. And it might simply be a enjoy triangle since she occasionally lovingly gazes at me while I do dishes.

So that is the latest in the sunroom. Cannot wait to share the storage-y piece of furniture that we will be adding under the bike art. Soon I hope!

Update: We at last created this Shop Our House page to assist you hunt down any furniture/accessories that you see in our house, along with all of our paint colors.