The following tutorial was written by my friend Kerry Fitts of Bayou Salvage. Kerry is a fellow New Orleans Craft Mafia member who creates awesome furnishings, clothing, accessories and mixed media art using recycled vintage and salvaged materials. Her work has been featured in Readymade Magazine, The Times-Picayune, The Gambit, Altered Couture & the Sacramento Examiner to name a few.
You can find her work at her website, her clothing and accessories at her Bayou Salvage Etsy shop, her salvaged art at pouxbelle.etsy.com, or check out her blog, Thrifting in Oblivion for her salvage adventures and thrift store finds.
Shabby frames are the perfect way to accent a great vintage or folk art painting. They are also fairly easy to make as long as you have a few basic woodworking tools and a bit of enthusiasm. Click below to get started and learn how to make your own shabby frame!
For this project you will need:
1. six feet of 3×1 salvage wood trim and a 5×7 scrap of wood
2. miter saw
3. wood glue
4. ruler
5. pencil
6. hammer & nails
Wood Selection & Preparation
Using old wood is aesthetically appealing and yet fraught with issues. Old paint may contain lead. Salvaged wood, especially with treasured layers of chippy paint might have bits of old nails and metal caught in the wood. Your saw blade hitting the metal could break your saw or worse, cause kickback, ignite sparks and fling metal into your eyes. I recommend a heavy duty mask and sanding the underside thoroughly to check for nails.
After you have picked out your salvage trim, sanded it and checked for nails, it is time to get busy with your frame.
I start with a scrap bit of 5×7 or 7×9 wood that I use as a base for my frame. Living in an area that is under constant construction, it is very easy to find scrap wood. Sometimes I have to take nails out and it usually needs to be cut down, but this wood is very easy to find near a construction site. Most contractors are thrilled to find someone who wants to drag their waste home.
1. The first step is to set the miter saw to “0″.
2. After that, get out your pencil and your salvage trim and measure the length needed for your salvage trim. This should measure no more than one inch past your base of scrap wood. I like to give it a half inch or so but nothing more and nothing flush to the sides.
3. After finding the length measurement, cut one piece of your salvage trim in this measurement. This will be a straight cut with your miter saw. Once cut, check it against your base to see how it fits.
4. After checking the cut and approving it, I then go on and use this newly cut piece of trim to measure the matching length-wise trim. Now cut your second length wise piece of trim.
5. Once you have your two pieces of trim cut, now it is time to go ahead and attach them to your base. Apply your wood glue to both the top and bottom length sections of your base. Attach your wood on the top of these strips of glue and then nail it in with your hammer or air compressor nail gun.
6. This next step is probably the most complicated of all. Once your top and bottom length sections are in, you will measure carefully the remaining width pieces on BOTH sides. You will have to measure carefully because both sides will most likely not be even. Further, cutting these smaller lengths of wood is a more complicated and dangerous task on a miter saw. Just take your time.
7. After making your cuts for the smaller width pieces, you will attach them with wood glue and then nail again, either using a hammer and nails or a nail compressor. The wood glue will make a permanent bond and the nails will serve as an additional security. I do no recommend using screws due to the fragility of old wood, and the unattractiveness of a big screw to detract from your frame. If you must use screws, you should pre-drill holes before using screws. You should always do this with old wood.
8. Now that your frame is assembled, you need to let the glue dry.
9. After your frame has spent at least 24 hours drying, you need to spray it with an eco-friendly polyurethane to seal the finish. I spray mine both before and after cutting in order to decrease lead paint exposure.
10. Install a sawhook with hammer to hang your frame!
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Great tutorial. Thumbs up from this critic. Thanks