Easy D.I.Y Floater Frames

*This blog post is in partnership with The Home Depot*

About five years ago I fell in love with a pair of hard-edge paintings online and to be honest, I wasn’t willing to pay that price so I made them myself. Yeah, the above canvases we’re painted by yours truly! (lol) Don’t get me wrong, they’re nice but they needed to be framed to add that extra “umph!”

I knew that floater frames were the answer but I couldn’t quite come to terms with paying $1100 to have them framed at the local framer. Instead, I decided to leave them as-is until I was ready to pay the big coins!

It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I decided to try building the frames myself because it seemed fairly easy! After watching countless woodworking videos, I headed over to The Home Depot because we all know that’s my favorite place to find all the materials in need under one roof. Be careful when shopping because, one wrong turn and you’ll be in the plant section buying all the plants you don’t need. But let’s be real, you could never have too many plants!

After finishing one frame before staining them.

MATERIALS

1” x 2” Poplar Wood (sold by the foot)
Pencil
Measuring Tape
Wood Glue
Miter Saw or Miter box + Hand Saw
Brad Nail Gun or Strap Clamp (to secure corners while wood glue dries)
C-Clamps (if using only wood glue)
Wood Stain (of choice)
Wood Filler (if using a brad nail gun to secure corners)
D-Rings
Picture hanging Nails

INSTRUCTIONS

Measure your canvas(s) and add all sides together to determine roughly how much wood you’ll need.
Determine the size of each piece of wood needed to build the frame. ( The frame needs to be slightly larger than the canvas to allow it to visually float inside the frame for the elevated look. I’ve done the math for you, just add one inch to each piece of wood and your canvas will have 1/4 spaces on all sides.)
Cut wood using a miter saw or miter box and handsaw.
Dry fit (assemble frame without glue) to ensure all the pieces are the correct size.
Glue the corners of the wood and secure with brad nails or use corner strap clamps to hold frame in place while the glue dries.
Now you’ll need to build the inside support of your frame so that the canvas sits flush with the front of the frame. Or you can skip this step altogether and use L-Brackets to secure your canvas in place. (To do that you’ll want to sit your canvas inside the frame and measure the depth of the wood that’s showing. This will determine the depth of the wood you’ll need to add so that the frame sits flush.)
Glue the wood to the inside of the frame for support and secure with a C-Clamps or brad nail and allow to dry.
After glue has dried, stain your wood frame. (Be sure to NOT use spray paint if your want a more professional finished look.)
Once stain has dried, drill pilot holes in the support wood where you will drill nails into the back of the canvas. (Be sure to use the correct size nails because you don’t want to drill through the front of canvas and destroy it.
Attach D -Rings to the back and hang your new beautifully framed artwork.

In addition to this blog post, I’ve filmed an IGTV Tutorial for you to check out before you start building yours. Click here to check it out and all the links are listed for you below.