You’ve finally splashed out on the piece of art you have had in your basket for a while but you didn’t factor in one thing… Framing. And then you realise it’s a whole new world and an expensive one!

Framing can be intimidating and there are a lot of options out there.  But leaving your piece rolled up for the foreseeable future in a corner of the room until you find the strength to brave it (easily done we know!) doesn’t have to be the answer. We’ve summarised everything you need to know to get you started on owning your framing vocab before you visit your local framers! And if you are local to London, we’ve also done a round-up of our favourite framers in the area.

Let’s start with the frame itself. Frames come in a lot of shapes and sizes but it essentially comes down to two things: the thickness of the frame and the type of wood you want to have. It depends on your personal taste and your artwork. For instance, an artwork with a red palette will go beautifully with an oak frame

while a darker palette might work well with a walnut frame.

For black, white and coloured frames you can choose between matt;

open grain or washed where you see the wood grain.

Once you’ve decided on the frame, you need to decide how your artwork should sit in the frame. There are three main types of framing: window-mounted, box framed and float-mounted. Window mounted is the classic frame with a mount board sitting on top of the artwork.

Box framed is the go-to modern frame. The artwork is framed in a shallow frame with the glass raised 20mm above the artwork creating a box effect. This works best for prints with a visible border.

Float-mounted is the most sophisticated of it all as it gives the impression that your artwork is floating. The work sits in a box frame away from the frame and is raised with a foam board. This frame works well with most artwork but is especially beautiful where the edges of the artwork are rough.

Just in case you are wondering, there is also a frame specifically for artwork on canvases called ‘tray frame’ where the canvas is mounted without glass with a 5mm shadow gap, sits deep in the frame slightly back from the face of the frame to prevent damage. Canvases can also be hanged without framing too!

Framers are used to pairing art with a frame so you can always ask the framers to advise you on the best option if you can’t decide. It does get easier!