Frame Styles & Materials at the VanArtHub gallery in Vancouver

Frame styles & materials

Choosing how the frame should look

Floater, gallery, and traditional frames, and the woods, metals, and finishes they are made from. Start here if you know what you want to protect and now need to choose how it should look.

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The frame is part of the painting now, so choose it that way

Once a painting is framed, nobody sees the two things separately again. The frame becomes the outer edge of the work, and it either supports what the artist did or argues with it. That is the whole job, and it is mostly a matter of restraint.

The good news is that the field narrows fast. What the piece is painted on rules out about half the options before you start. The wall it hangs on rules out most of the rest. By the time you are actually choosing, you are usually picking between two or three mouldings, not three hundred.

Flat Quiet. Modern work. Scoop Draws the eye in. Cap A defined outer edge. Reverse Steps down to the art. Cassetta A raised outer lip. Float Canvas, with a gap. VIEWER SIDE ABOVE · WALL BELOW
Six moulding profiles cut through, all drawn at the same scale. The wall is below, you are above. A flat profile stays out of the way, a scoop pulls the eye inward toward the art, and a cap or cassetta builds a visible border that becomes part of the composition.

The four woods we use most

  • Oak Open grain, warm and pale. Lifts landscape and anything with a lot of light in it.
  • Ash Paler and calmer than oak. The safest choice against a white wall.
  • Maple Fine, almost closed grain. Reads as clean rather than rustic.
  • Walnut Dark, close grain, slightly purple in daylight. Weight without going to black.

Colour and relative width only. These are drawn, not photographed, so they share one light source and can be compared against each other. Real grain varies piece to piece, and we will show you the actual moulding before anything is cut.

Every guide in this hub

Frame Styles & Materials

Choosing a frame

Materials

Common questions

Questions about frame styles

Should the frame match the room or the painting?

The painting first, the room second. A frame chosen to match your sofa will look wrong the moment you move house, and the painting will outlive the sofa. Where the room does matter is wall colour and light, because those decide whether a dark or a pale frame reads better.

Is a wider frame more expensive?

Usually yes, and by more than you would expect. Moulding is bought by the length, so a wider, deeper profile costs more per metre and you need the same number of metres. Width is one of the easiest places to save money without hurting the result.

Do all the frames in a room need to match?

No, and a room where everything matches often looks like a showroom. What holds a mixed group together is a shared line rather than a shared frame. See gallery wall frame sizing.

Can you match a frame I already own?

Often. Bring it in or send photographs of the corner and the profile from the side. If we cannot get the identical moulding we can usually get close enough that the two read as a pair.

What is the difference between a floater and a traditional frame?

A floater sits behind the canvas with a gap around the edge so the painting looks like it is floating, and it covers none of the painted surface. A traditional frame overlaps the front edge of the work by several millimetres. See floater frames for canvas.

Should I choose the frame before or after I buy the painting?

After, if you can. A frame chosen against the actual piece in daylight fits the colours and the scale correctly, and any warmth or coolness in the paint shows up under real light rather than shop light. Choosing first and hoping the art matches later usually means a compromise on one side or the other.

Do black and white frames suit every painting?

No single colour suits every painting, which is why black and white are the two most requested rather than the only two. A black frame draws the eye and works best against a light wall; white lets the frame nearly disappear. See black frames vs white frames.

How do I know which profile shape is right for my piece?

Start with the medium: canvas usually wants a floater, and paper usually wants a flat or scoop moulding deep enough to hold a mat and glazing. From there it is a question of how much presence you want the frame to have next to the art. See frame profiles explained.

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