My 3 year old got into the paints again, but this time he made a picture that impressed
me so much, I wanted to get it framed and hang it somewhere special. Until I realized
that custom frames are ridiculously expensive. So in this project let's find a way to use
this plain old wooden board, to make an ostentatious picture frame, that will keep costs low, but
hopefully instill a sense of accomplishment, that's priceless.
Let's start this project with a 6' length of common board I got at the hardware store for under
$4.00. Now, it's important the board is completely straight, and you can check for any warping
by peering straight down the top. I'll also try bordering the picture with a pre-cut matting
I got from the hobby store, because the inner edges are beveled, which should help give
the picture nicer finish. Now the first thing we need to do is cut a small piece off the
end of the board to make sure the edge is straight and clean. Next, let's cut two pieces
to custom heights, and by ripping the two boards at the same time, you can see they
end up exactly the same size. The other 2 pieces are cut using the same method, but
you can see they're quite a bit longer, and that's because the frame is pretty thick and
these are gonna form the top and bottom. Ok, we need a way to fasten this together,
and I'm gonna try using a mini pocket hole jig. This is simply clamped to the end of
the board and allows us to cut a diagonal hole at about a 15º angle. You could try
drilling without the jig, but this way it ends up looking a little more professional.
Now if we add a bit of wood glue to the sides that touch, press them firmly together, then
drive a screw into the holes we made, it'll fasten the boards together cleanly, and very
securely. Now just for fun, let's head to the router station and try using a key-hole
bit to make a slot for hanging the frame on the wall. If you wanna see how I made this
router table, see if you can find it in a previous project. Now I'm gonna try clamping
down a straight-edge and marking where the center of the bit lines up. And if we mark
a 2" section across the middle of the frame, you can see now, that when the router is spinning,
we're able to slowly press the board down flat on the table, and carefully follow the
markings to cut out a recessed groove on the backside. I chose to lift it straight up to
finish the cut, and hopefully from this angle you can see what it did. The head of a screw
can enter, but then it's held securely on the inside of the groove. Ok, let's try swapping
out the key-hole bit for a 1/2" rabbeting bit. If we follow the inside ridge of the
frame, you can see it cuts a 1/2" channel where we can fit the picture and glass later
on. While we're here, let's try cutting a groove around the outer edge as well. And
this is just to make them pop out a little more. Alright, the edges are looking good,
but still a little rough with splinters, but you can see a little sanding will clean it
up quickly and easily. Now instead of using real glass to protect the picture, I'm gonna
try plexiglas instead. You might remember in a previous project, I took the screen off
an old TV, and used one of the layers to create a giant solar scorcher, which was used for
all sorts of projects. But there were still two other layers to the screen, one of which
was a clear sheet of plexiglass. Now I tried using a belt sander to round the edges so
it would fit the frame, and now we can use it as a template on the picture frame matting,
to trace the edges, and cut it to fit. If we tape the picture to the back, and take
a look, you can see the beveled inner edges are already starting to make the picture pop.
Alright, it's time to finish the frame. I have this can of Onyx black paint from a previous
project, and I decided to go ahead and just brush one thick coating, making sure to cover
the sides as well. Now we can leave this to dry for a couple of hours, and when we come
back, the frame is actually looking pretty good. We could stop here, but I want to use
a bit of sandpaper to rough up the edges and give it a bit of a distressed look. This way,
when it gets beaten up over time, it'll still look just as good. Alright, the frame
is finished, so now we can insert the plexiglas, the picture, and a wooden backing to keep
it together and press it all flat. To secure the blacking in place, I'm gonna try shooting
some brad nails at a bit of an angle into each of the 4 corners, then pressing them
down flat as well. At this point, our picture frame is completely finished. My little boy
gave his approval, and we decided to hang it on one of the prominent walls of the play
room, the same place where it hangs to this day. Now, these frames are so simple and easy
to make, and have such a modern and elegant feel to them, that I went ahead and made a
whole bunch more and framed some of the other pictures in our house. So sure, you need a
few tools to make them, but I got most of mine second hand at garage sales, and the
savings on just a couple of these homemade frames, more than made up the difference.
Well now you know how to turn a simple piece of common board, into modern and decorative
picture frames, that are super low cost to build, make your favorite pictures stand out
in style, and show the people that painted them that their work is appreciated. Well
that's it for now, if you liked this project perhaps you'll like some of my others. Check
them out at www.thekingofrandom.com