Parenthood has many rewards, and one of my favorites is seeing Julia beam with pride when we display her artwork. I have a large tack board in my office that always holds lots of her latest pieces, but we also wanted to show at least one of her pictures more prominently, and give it the honor of a frame. We framed a favorite a couple of years ago, thinking that we would update the picture inside that frame from time to time, but we’ve never done it. I guess when it came down to it, dismantling and reassembling the frame, mat and glass was just too much trouble to do often.
What we needed was something that was as easy to change as my office tack board with the look of a frame for fine art.
Turns out, making such a thing is pretty simple.
1. I started with a base of Homasote, an inexpensive material made of recycled paper that’s soft enough tack into, but firm enough to hold a crisp shape. (Homasote is available at most home improvement stores and lumber yards.) I determined the ideal size to hold Julia’s paintings from school, measured and marked the Homasote, and cut it to size.
With some labor, you can cut Homasote with a utility knife, but a small hand-held drywall saw makes the task quick and easy. (Of course, if you can get the lumber yard to cut it for you, so much the better.) If you have a frame on hand that you’d like to use –or if you buy one at a vintage furniture or thrift shop (which are often good and economical sources for nice frames)– measure the inside of the frame and cut the Homasote to fit.
2. Next I covered the Homasote panel with fabric. I found a heavy off-white linen blend at my local fabric store that reminded me of the archival linen used to mount fine art. The fabric you choose should have a coarse enough weave to “heal” when tacks are removed. It also shouldn’t be at all stretchy so you can pull it taught over the base and keep its weave square to the sides of the panel.
I cut the fabric leaving about a 3″ (7.5cm) margin on all sides and ironed out the creases.
3. Next I folded the fabric over the top of the panel and secured it with a row of staples from a staple gun.
4. Then I folded the fabric over the bottom of the panel, pulling it taught and stapling it in place as I went. Then I did the sides, folding the corners as if I were wrapping a package.
5. Now my fabric covered panel was ready to frame. (If you already have a frame, place it face down on a soft, clean surface, drop the panel face down inside it and secure it in place with glazier’s points.)
6. I didn’t have a frame on hand, so I took mine to my favorite local framer. I chose a frame that I thought would suit a wide variety of pictures –wood with a gold glaze and a deep bevel that creates a crisp shadow line around the work.
Clear pushpins are barely visible, but you could use even smaller white ones to further minimize their appearance.
This afternoon I tested our new frame with a favorite picture from my office tack board.
Julia approved.
