Wall art has been around a long time, and frames have been a necessity for delicate works that need protection. That being said, picture frames also set the mood and tone of artwork. They can enhance it or they can really bring it down. In this example we took a purely functional frame and replaced it with something that really enhances the artwork. Bland before, awesome after! Updated frame gives art a second life. We love how it turned out… Read on to see the before and after photos.
Before – This beautiful collage was framed in a very utilitarian metal frame and off white linen. The linen had discolored a bit and the metal frame was a bit skimpy for the size of the art. Shiny plexiglass reflected everything in the room right back at you and you couldn’t see the art without seeing a bunch of reflections too.
This artwork is a huge 7′ tall mixed media collage on paper. The artist used heavy printmaking paper, and made marks on it with pastels and inks. Then she layered on vellum that had also been painted in many sections to collage the body and legs of the figure, as well as the tidepools at her feet. There is a lot going on in this art – from the emotional weight to the visual color and texture, it’s intricate and moody. The frame it was in, however, had nothing to say about the art. It’s what we call a functional frame – all it did was serve the purpose of making the artwork displayable. It protected it behind reflective plexiglass and gave us a way to hang the art up, but the lack of personality in the frame really cheapened the look of the art.
After – The new frame is hand wrapped linen inside a handsome 3.5″ wide wood frame. The charcoal and black color choices make the lighter colors in the art pop out. The overall style of the new frame suits the heavy mood of the artwork better too. We included our scale human at 5′ 3″ to show how large this art is!
Frame and I to the rescue!
We wanted to give purpose to the framing and make it say a little more about the artwork. First off it needed better plexiglass. The reflections in the old glass were really distracting – so we used Tru Vue Optium acrylic on it to control reflections and inhibit UV exposure. You can barely tell there is glass on it now! We also thought the previous frame was a little wimpy for the size of the art, so we used a hand wrapped charcoal grey linen liner and a much wider wood frame on it to give it some weight. The darker colors enhance the artwork by making it appear more vibrant.
We hope you enjoyed seeing this transformation! What have you got that could use an update? Let us know!
Thanks for reading,
Ida K.