Dapper DIY: Reusing a Commercial Art Frame

I'm not usually a fan of commercially produced art. There are far too many amazing artists, both professional and amateur, to waste your time and wall space on something that's spit out by a factory. When I was given this print of a Lichtenstein piece a couple of years ago, I smiled and said thanks but I knew it wasn't for me. Then, as I was trying to complete a gallery wall, I hung it up out of desperation. I needed one more big framed piece to complete the wall and, well, there it was. For the past year I have groaned every time I looked at the framed print. We have dozens of original works of art sitting in a little box waiting to be framed and here I am displaying a print of a famous piece. For shame!

In a burst of project completion one day, I finally decided to re-use the frame for one of the original pieces we have. Now, I know this is not way the right way to frame art. I have a few framer friends who may never speak to me again if they see this post. Framing art is an art in and of itself and I am in no way disparaging their talents. But, hey, I'm a dapper dude on a budget and the frame needs to be re-used so I just went for it.

The first step was disassembling the frame. Using a flat head screwdriver, I removed the two screws from two of the corner brackets.

With the two corner brackets removed I was able to remove one side of the frame. There was no need to remove all four corner brackets since I really only needed to remove on side of the frame to allow me to slip the art out of it.

Now that the one side of the frame had been removed, I needed to remove the clips that hold the art and glass in place in the frame. I used the flat head screwdriver to push one side of the clip down and out away from the frame.

And then I used my fingers to pull the clip completely out of the frame. There were three clips for each side of the frame - one on each end and one in the middle - for a total of twelve clips. One clip did fly out of the frame and came within an inch of my face so be warned!

With the clips removed I was able to slide the art out of the open side of the frame. I took this opportunity to clean the glass, inside and out.

When I pulled the art out of the frame, I discovered that it was one piece of foam core with the art printed directly on it. Since the foam core was perfectly sized for the frame I decided to re-use it as the backdrop for my original art.

I covered the foam core in kraft paper to use as my background. I place the foam on a roll of kraft paper and cut a piece that was a few inches larger. Then I wrapped the paper around the foam core and taped the paper to the back of it. Next, I tore a few more strips of kraft paper, wrapped them around the foam core and attached them to the back with tape. The art I'm framing is ripped from a sketch book so it has torn edges. I wanted to replicate this look with the torn edges of the kraft paper. (This also meant I could "float" the art in the frame instead of creating a mat.)

Since I'm working with an original piece of art, I don't want to use tape or any other adhesives to attach it to the background. Instead, I placed the art on the kraft paper covered foam core and positioned it where I wanted it. I knew that once I slid everything into the frame and reapplied the clips, the art would be sandwiched so tightly in the frame that it wouldn't move. It took a couple of attempts to slide the whole thing into the frame and get the artwork perfectly positioned. On my first attempt, I noticed that the art had budged a bit and was uneven in the frame. On the second attempt the art didn't move but it still wasn't quite level. I used an x-acto knife to straighten the art, slid the whole thing into the frame and was finally happy.

Once I was satisfied with how the art looked, I re-attached the top of the frame and inserted the clips. With the clips in, I stood the frame upright and gave it a little shake. Nope, that artwork was not going to budge.

Like I said, this is definitely not the perfect way to frame art. It is, however, a cheap way to re-use an old frame. I like how the kraft paper plays with the art - both the color and the way the torn edges of the paper mimic that of the art. Eventually I'll want to take this art to a framer and have it legitimately framed but for the time being I'm quite happy with how this turned out.

So what do you think? Will you keep start keeping an eye out for old frames to re-use?

Images: Jason Loper