We’ve been updating our wall art over the past few months. One way we’re updating our art is by swapping out smaller art pieces for large form art. We’ve found a great way to save money by creating canvas wrapped frames from downloadable art, which you can read about How to Create Wrapped Canvas Art for under $100 here.
With all the large form art now, we wanted to frame them. We opted for a floating frame style. This post shows you how to make a floating picture frame and save about $100. The design build process can be accomplished with a few simple tools and there are some different options on how to pull it all together.
Project Design Considerations
#01: Measurements You’ll Need: Measure the height, width, and depth of your picture. If you have a wrapped canvas frame, the measurements will be slightly greater at the edges where the canvas is overlapped (by about 1/8 – 1/16 inch).
#02: How much Float Gap You Want: We used 3/8 inch between the wood frame and the picture which gave us the desired illusion.
Construction and Assembly
#01: Cut Your Wood. For this version of the floating frame, we opted for a simple butt joint. The frame was 1-1/4 inch deep so I ripped a board as that would become the face frame and sit on the backing piece with the picture frame. This gives a nice detail on the sides of the picture frame – it also hides the nail holes as they’ll be from the back and not the side. Our setup isn’t complex as you can see our table saw just goes out the side door of the garage.
#02: Glue Time. Once you have your boards ripped its time to glue them together. Run a bead of glue and press the boards together. We put a few nails in the ends to help hold the butt joint together then clamped it in place. With this design, the nail holes will be on the back of the frame and won’t show. You don’t need a lot of nails unless your wood is really warped – even so, go easy as you need to cut this wood to length.
TIP: Check your nail height to make sure they won’t go through your boards. Also, you want to make sure there’s enough bite into the wood so it holds. I used 1.5-inch 18 gauge nails. You can also use regular nails or screws.
Once the boards are together there will likely be glue that seeps out. Make sure you wipe it away with a wet rag and wipe it a couple of times. It will be difficult to sand it away because it’s against the corner. Glue left over on your wood will reduce the stain pickup by the wood.
#03: Admire Your Work and Let Your Glue Dry. We used a few speed clamps and some of our regular wood clamps. The photo below shows where we’re at prior to cutting the frames – two 8-foot long pieces ready to be cut to length.
#04: Cut Boards to Length. With this configuration the corners come together using a 45 degree angle (miter) cut. Start as close to one end as possible and make your first angle cut – watch for nails if you used them. The tricky part is measuring – measure along the inside of the “L” where the boards come together. We had a 24 x 36 inch frame – our cuts were 24 3/4 inches and 36 3/4 inches. The 3/4 inch accounts for the two 3/8 reveals on either side.
With the first one cut, check it against your frame to make sure you’re getting the reveal you want. For boards that are the same length, use the first cut board to mark the second board. This makes the process faster and you can make sure that the boards are the same length.
TIP: If you haven’t used your miter saw in awhile, it’s a good idea to check the angle and calibrate the saw. Here is a useful tool to calibrate: make a 90- and 45-degree cut and check with the tool.
#05: Sanding. Yay, sanding. Because we are staining we went through our typical sanding disk order — 120, 180, 240 grit sanding discs. Be careful not to take too much material from the frame. Also, don’t sand the angle cuts unless they are not coming together flush.
#06: Assemble the Frame. Take the four pieces you’ve cut and assemble them. We used some glue and two nails to hold each corner together. You can use a little wood filler on any nail holes – there’s even white wood filler.
#07: Apply Pre-Stain and Stain. If you’re staining, applying a pre-stain wood conditioner as it will produce a more consistent application of your stain color. Apply the pre-stain per directions: apply, wait 5 to 15 minutes, and wipe off. Apply your stain within two hours.
#08: Apply Connectors. We used some Figure 8 connectors and screws to attach the canvas frame to our floating frame. We had contemplated just nailing it all together but the figure-8’s allowed the canvas frame to be re-positioned within our built frame.
#09: Use Spacers to Position Canvas and Attach. We cut some 3/8 inch thick pieces of wood to use as spacers. This way the canvas picture was centered in the floating frame. Put the spaces in the center of each of side as there tends to be bunching in the corners. From the back you can screw in the canvas frame to the figure 8s. You can use some washers to get a tighter fit if need be (we didn’t). We recommend a very gentle pre-drill of the holes so that nothing splits.
#10: Attach the Picture Hanging Kit. We bought a wire picture hanging kit but the eyelet hooks that it came with were to small for my liking. I tend to overbuild things. We had some 1 inch cup hooks that we bent with a pair of pliers to close them. The hooks were screwed into the inside of the frame as we didn’t want it to hang off the wall to far. Make sure that you account for the size of your wall hook and the slack of the wire so that it doesn’t bump into the top of your wood. We doubled up the wire for added strength.
#11: Hang your Creation! We used a picture hanger with the 3 pins that you hammer into the drywall from a picture hanging kit (like this one on Amazon). Instead of making your marks on the wall, you can use blue tape and mark on it. Attach bumpers to the back of your floating frame near the bottom to help keep it level and protect your wall.
That’s it! You can now enjoy your handiwork. Leave a comment and let us know how your projects goes!
