Painted picture frame ideas: We made our edge frame bright blue

We talk a lot about making the artwork your own. And recently we started thinking about what else you could do with our kits. Why stop at the canvas?

For this piece, we took the wooden edge frame from our Mix Art Kit and painted the pieces a bright, vibrant blue before adding it around the finished artwork.

It was a very small extra step, but it completely changed the finished piece. And we are low-key obsessed with the outcome. And that's exactly the kind of thing we want to keep experimenting with to hopefully inspire you as well.

 

The frame can be a bigger part of the artwork

Most of the time, your picture frame is treated as the finishing touch. Something neutral that sits around the artwork and lets the painting do most of the talking.

We love that. Our natural oak and dark oak edge frames are designed to give finished Plan artworks a very clean, considered look. But there’s absolutely no reason you can't take them further.

Painting a wooden picture frame is one of the easiest ways to introduce another colour into a piece and make the whole artwork feel more personal.

For this one, we went blue. Very blue.

 

Why we chose blue

We thought it would look really cool. That was about as deep as it got.

We painted the wooden edge frame first, then created the artwork afterwards to work with it. Once that bright blue was there, it gave us a colour to build around and helped shape the direction of the piece.

Rather than treating the frame as something you add at the end, it became part of the starting point. And because the artwork itself stayed quite minimal, the blue frame gave the whole piece a much stronger edge. Literally.

 

How we painted the wooden edge frame

This really isn't a complicated DIY. We painted the four wooden edge-frame pieces first, before painting the artwork, and before attaching the frame to the canvas.

Using acrylic paint from the Mix Kit and a brush, we covered the visible surfaces of each piece in blue and left them to dry completely. Then the frame was assembled around the finished canvas as normal.

Because you're working with the individual wooden pieces before they're attached, it's easy to reach the edges and get the colour where you want it without worrying about accidentally painting your finished artwork.

 

It doesn't have to match the painting

We matched ours, but you absolutely don't have to. You could deliberately choose a frame colour that contrasts with the artwork instead.

Imagine:

• A mostly neutral painting with a bright red frame
• Soft pinks with a deep green edge
• A monochrome artwork surrounded by cobalt blue
• Or a painting with tiny flashes of one colour, then that same colour repeated boldly around the outside

Sometimes the frame could be the loudest part, and that's what makes this such a simple but fun way to take a canvas painting idea further.

 

Try mixing your own frame colour

If you're using our Mix Kit, you're not limited to painting your picture frame one of the colours straight from the tube either. Red, yellow and blue give you a starting point to mix oranges, greens, purples and countless variations in between.

Add white for something softer, or a little black for something deeper. You could even mix the exact colour you've already used somewhere within your painting and carry it onto the frame.

If you're new to colour mixing, we've also put together a simple guide on how to mix acrylic paint colours using a primary palette.

 

It changes the whole piece

This is what we loved most. Before the frame went on, the painting felt finished. Then we added the blue edge frame and it became something else entirely. More graphic, more playful and more intentional.

And because the artwork itself has a lot of natural raw canvas showing, that slim line of vivid blue around the outside creates a really satisfying contrast.

It's a reminder that sometimes you don't need to completely reinvent what you're creating. One unexpected decision can be enough.

 

Look beyond the obvious

This is really what we want these inspiration posts to be about. A Plan kit gives you frames, canvas, paints and tools. But those things aren't instructions for one fixed outcome.

Paint with the brush, or use your hands. Mix completely new colours, leave half the canvas raw. Paint the frame, paint only part of the frame. The materials are the starting point, and where you take them is up to you.

 

Make your frame part of the artwork

For this piece, bright blue paint took the finished artwork in a completely different direction. If you've been looking for painted picture frame ideas, a way to personalise your canvas art or simply something different to try with your next Plan kit, start with the edge.

Choose a colour from the artwork, mix something completely new or go for a contrast that makes the whole piece pop. Then paint it.

Check out our art kits here, choose your favourite colour palette and make every part of your artwork your own, right down to the frame.

 

Emmi
Co-founder of Plan