Have you ever had an oddly-sized picture or piece of art to frame but couldn't find an off-the-shelf frame and custom framing was too expensive? Then read on to discover my secret hack for saving hundreds of dollars on custom framing jobs, so you can create truly unique art pieces for your home.
A custom project in my bathroom - an Oriole bird print from an old Audubon book.
Why is custom framing so expensive?
There are a handful of standard, off-the-shelf frame sizes that you can get easily and cheaply from stores. You've probably seen the following sizes at your local craft or home goods store:
4" x 4"
4" x 6"
5" x 7"
6" x 8"
8" x 8"
8" x 10"
10" x 12"
11" x 14"
12" x 15"
16" x 20"
18" x 24"
20" x 24"
24" x 36"
27" x 40"
But what if you need a specialty size? Well, you get a custom-made frame, right? Because custom frames can be made to an infinite number of sizes, they require a special order and lots of time to be hand cut and assembled. You can get a decent custom frame at your local big box craft store, and they usually have coupons for custom frame projects that offer 60-70% off. But the final product still costs hundreds of dollars.
What they don't want you to know is there's a much cheaper option that still looks custom.
The trick to affordable custom framing
The trick to getting the results of a custom framed piece has nothing to do with the frame and everything to do with the matte! The matte is the thick cardboard piece that frames your artwork or picture within the frame.
You probably never really paid much attention to the matte before. But it's the missing link between buying an off-the-shelf frame and putting in your oddly-sized artwork and having it look professionally assembled.
A custom matte project in my daughter's room. These are oddly-sized pages from old books, which I custom-matted into standard-sized picture frames.
More about mattes
Mattes, just like frames, come in a variety of standard sizes. But with mattes, there are two measurements to keep in mind: the outer measurement (the overall size of the matte) and the inner measurement (the cut-out).
Outer measurement: The outer measurement tells you what size frame the matte will fit in. Fortunately, standard matte sizes match up with standard frame sizes. So you can pretty easily find an 8" x 10" matte.
Inner measurement: The inner measurement tells you what size picture you can put inside the matte. Most off-the-shelf mattes come with standard inner measurements. For example, a matte that fits in an 11" x 14" frame will usually have an inner measurement opening of 8" x 10". So you can fit a photo or piece of art that's about 8" x 10".
Mattes come in all kinds of colors and textures. You can even layer mattes for a super custom and fancy look (like the photo above).
The matte opening can be centered in the matte board or it can be offset, depending on the look you want to achieve. For example, if you're making a custom signature frame for your wedding, you might want to have a picture at the top of your matte board and leave a lot of room at the bottom for signatures.
You can make the matte as thin or thick as you want. For instance, in the example I mentioned above, an 11" x 14" frame will usually have an inner measurement opening of 8" x 10". But if you wanted to make a statement piece, you could put that 8" x 10" artwork in a much larger frame with a much larger matte board - say, a 20" x 24" frame. And suddenly, your picture takes up a lot more wall space and makes a bigger design statement (like my Oriole picture above).
How to buy custom picture mattes
Just like you can buy custom-made picture frames, you can also buy custom-made mattes. But here's where the magic happens - custom mattes are much cheaper than custom frames. And no need to schlep your custom artwork out to a frame shop. You can do it all from the comfort of your home.
I like to use the site Matboard and More for my custom mattes, but there are plenty of others to choose from. Matboard and More walks you through the process of inputting your exact measurements and creating your custom matte with a very visual tool. As with most things in life, there are so many options for your matte. The beauty is, you can spend a lot or a little - but it'll still be less than a custom frame.
A custom matte project in my son's room. We used pages from my husband's vintage Cub Scouts book from when he was a little boy.
How to measure for a custom matte
Measure the size of your custom artwork or picture. Since I work best with a real-world example, let's say I have a page out of an old children's picture book that I want to frame. It measures 8 1/2" x 9 3/8".
Decide what size standard frame you want to buy. It just needs to be bigger in both width and height than your custom artwork or picture. So in my example, I need a frame that's bigger than 8 1/2" x 9 3/8" high. That means I'm looking at frames of these sizes: 10" x 12" 11" x 14" 12" x 15" 16" x 20" 18" x 24" 20" x 24" 24" x 36" 27" x 40"
Wow, that's a lot of options! At this point, it really comes down to what look I'm going for and how much I want to spend. If you want a really dramatic look and have a large wall to fill, I would go with a larger frame, where the matte will be expansive and the picture will stand out in the middle. If I have limited wall space, or want a simple piece, I would go with one of the smaller frame options.
I've decided in this case to go with a 11" x 14" frame. So now, I need to order an 11" x 14" matte with an opening that will accommodate my custom artwork. Matboard and More has helpful directions for how to measure the inner measurement/opening in your matte. They suggest having the matte opening be slightly smaller than your actual artwork (by 1/4" on each side), so keep that in mind as you measure and select your final sizing. The reason they suggest a slightly smaller matte opening is so your artwork lays nice and flat under the matte. If the matte opening and your artwork are exactly the same size, you might be able to see the edge of the artwork paper, which looks unprofessional. If you've come this far, take the extra steps to measure twice (or three or four times) to make sure your inputting the correct inner measurement opening. In my example, my artwork is 8 1/2" wide x 9 3/8" high, so I'm going to input an inner opening measurement of 8 1/4" x 9 1/8". It's not an exact science - I just want my matte opening to be slightly smaller than my artwork. Matboard and More allows for differently shaped openings. Besides rectangle/square, you can also do an oval opening, rounded corners, stepped corners, etc. You can also decide whether or not to center the opening vertically, or have it offset to the top or the bottom. Again, it all depends on the final look you're going for. What I like about Matboard and More's tool is that you can preview your matte before you buy it, so you can see what all of these options look like. You can even upload an image of your artwork so you can see it in the matte. This is especially helpful if you're choosing a color matte and want to see if it looks good. And yes, you can even buy a frame through Matboard and More, but the whole point of this exercise is saving money on buying an off-the-shelf frame elsewhere. I find that big box stores, like Michael's, HomeGoods, Walmart, etc. have the best prices on standard frames.
Place your order and wait! Because these are custom orders, they aren't next-day (though you can probably pay more if you need it faster). I will also say: the one thing I don't love about the custom matte places I've used is that they charge a lot for shipping - in the case of the hypothetical project I've used as an example here, it's $11.38 for the matte and $9.95 for shipping. But they do have to ship it in one big, flat piece that won't bend, so I guess I understand. Besides, just over $20 for your custom matte isn't bad, when you consider how much a custom frame might have been.
Hang it up, admire your creative genius, and fan yourself with a wad of the twenty dollar bills you just saved yourself.
A few more personal projects
A custom matte to fit in our wedding signature frame (an old window). The pane size wouldn't fit a standard-sized photo print, so I printed the photo at a standard size and had a custom matte created to fill the gap.
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