How to frame canvas art: Why the edge frame makes all the difference

An edge frame can completely change a canvas. It gives the artwork definition and adds another material to the piece. It's like that cherry on top that takes your piece to another level. Adding it is also one of our favourite parts of the whole process with a Plan Art Kit.

Every kit comes with a wooden edge frame, cut to fit your canvas and ready for you to attach with the included staple gun yourself.

So there is no trip to the framers, measuring up afterwards or finishing your artwork and then realising you still need to work out how to frame it. You'll have everything in one place to easily do it yourself.

 

Do you need to frame canvas art?

Technically, no. A stretched canvas can be hung without an outer frame. But there’s a reason we include one in every kit.

Adding an edge frame gives the canvas a much more considered finish. It creates a clean wooden border around the artwork, covers the stretched edges of the canvas and makes the whole piece feel more substantial.

It can also completely change how the artwork reads.

A very simple painting suddenly has more presence. An abstract piece feels contained by the clean lines around it. Even an entirely blank linen canvas can become a finished piece of wall art once that wooden edge goes on.

For us the frame isn't an optional extra at the end, it’s part of the artwork.

 

How Plan's canvas edge frame works

We wanted framing to be part of making the piece, without turning it into another complicated project. So every one of our DIY framed canvas kits includes four handcrafted and precisely cut wooden edge frame pieces, made to fit around the finished canvas.

Once you’ve built the inner frame, stretched your cotton or linen canvas and finished your artwork, you attach the four edge frame pieces around it. They sit closely against the sides of the canvas creating a slim, clean border around the entire piece.

When attaching it, the same staple gun you’ve already used to build and stretch your canvas switches to T-staples (small nail-like fixings) to secure the edge frame at the corners.

 

Oak or Dark Oak?

Every Plan kit gives you a choice between Oak and Dark Oak, and the frame finish can have a surprisingly big effect on the final artwork.

• Oak keeps things light and natural. It works beautifully with raw cotton and linen, softer colours and artwork where you want the frame to quietly finish the piece without adding too much contrast.
• Dark Oak creates more definition. Against a lighter canvas it draws a stronger line around the artwork, and it works particularly well with darker, moodier or more graphic pieces.

And if neither fits the vision you have for your piece? You can paint it.

We’ve painted our edge frames before when an artwork needed something different. Because you’re making the piece yourself, there’s nothing stopping you from making the frame part of the artwork too.

 

How to frame your canvas art with an edge frame

With a Plan kit, framing is deliberately straightforward.

After building your inner frame, stretching the fabric canvas and making your artwork, you simply place the edge frame pieces around the canvas. Each piece has already been cut to size, so they come together neatly at the corners and sit closely around the edge of your artwork.

The included 3-in-1 staple gun does more than one job throughout the project. D-staples are used when building the inner frame and stretching the canvas; T-staples are used for attaching the wooden edge frame. All you need to do is fix the edge-frame pieces into position with the T-staples.

 

The frame is part of the reason we made the kit this way

Making canvas art from scratch can involve a surprisingly long shopping list. You need the timber or stretcher frame. You need canvas, staple gun, the right staples, paint, brushes, something to mix paint on, something to cover your table, tape, other tools. Then, once you've finally made the artwork, you might still want a frame to finish it.

We wanted the whole thing to exist as one project that feels within reach.

Our Full Art Kits give you everything you need to start your project, alongside access to our Digital Art Guide with video tutorials and painting guides. You don't need to already have an art cupboard or a workshop full of tools. You open the kit and start.

 

And hanging it is already taken care of too

The edge frame gives the artwork its finished outer border, but you don't need to add hanging hardware to it.

There’s a hanging groove built directly into the inner frame, so once the edge frame is attached, your finished canvas is ready to go on the wall.

It means the back stays clean and the edge frame can simply do what it's there to do: finish the artwork.

 

A small detail that changes the whole thing

We could have stopped at the stretched canvas. But we wanted the end result of a Plan kit to feel like something you would genuinely choose for your home, not something that still needed another step once the kit was technically “finished”.

The edge frame does just that. It takes a canvas you've built and artwork you've made yourself and gives the whole thing its final line around the outside. And because the frame, tools and fixings were already sitting there waiting for you, that finished result isn't something you have to figure out afterwards. It's part of the project from the start.

Explore our Full Art Kits for everything you need to build, stretch, paint and frame and your own canvas art, or browse our Blank Canvas Kits if you've already got the paints and tools, and want everything you need to build the canvas itself.

 

Emmi
Co-founder of Plan