Before And After-From 1800's Barn to Updated Frame

An older gentleman came to me last week with a canvas painting of a houseboat. The painting was dangling from three slats of old wood, and a fourth slat completely removed.

It belonged to his wife, and he, in the process of moving it, dropped and broke it, then hid it from her. Now was looking at me in desperation waiting on me to tell him I could make it all better.


As it turns out, we don't do frame repairs and even if we did, this wasn't technically a frame. Someone had actually nailed four slats of wood together and taped the art to the back. It was a miracle that it didn't deteriorate sooner.

I suggested a new frame. He'll get to present the cherished art to his wife in a beautiful new frame, and she'll be happy it's no longer in that old beat up excuse for a frame. That should make everything better, right?


Not so fast, there's more. As it turns out, the wood held more sentimental value than the art. The wood, the old, soft, dried up wood had been pulled off an old barn in the 1800's that belonged to the his wife's ancestors.

"No worries!" I blurt out.  I can just "frame the frame! I'll just build a frame around what we have now to hold it all in place, and your wife will love it!" He grinned from ear to ear and said that when he came in his hope was only "this high" as he placed his palm face down parallel to the floor. "But now, it is this high!" he again gestured with is palm down, this time as far over his head as it could reach.

Uh oh. Did I really just say I could do that? Out loud?

The first time I ever suggested "framing a frame" a few years back, my co-workers looked at me like I was crazy. However, all of those frames were intact. Now, I believe they may have been on to something as I now doubted my own sanity.

Too late. I've committed the plan and he's expecting big things from me. I officially had to make this work.
Thankfully, surprisingly, it was a success.

Here, is how the final piece turned out.

Here's a close up view:

I called him the minute I finished and within ten minutes he was there to pick it up. Seeing the joy on his face was worth the challenge. After he paid for it he came back in the frame shop to thank me again! These are the moments that make the challenge worth it.

Here are a few more "frame the frame" projects that I've done:
Before: This was the first time I'd ever thought of framing a frame. The original frame is the brownish/gold inner frame. This customer did not want to get rid of it for sentimental reasons. After: In this case, when I cut the glass, I cut it to the outside size of the old frame, set it on top and place the new frame over that. This way, the old frame is protected and encased behind glass with the art.

Here's a close up corner view:

. Then there was this one: I had no choice really but to "frame the frame" in this case: The art had been attached to the frame in a haphazard way and removing it would have damaged it. It had to stay in the frame.

The art had an interesting story. It was a print of a town or area in Poland that had been destroyed in WWII. This print survived and was used as a guide to rebuild the town as it was before. (That's the story I was told, my details may be a little off-but you get the idea).

The blue and gold frame is the original. As you can see some of the art is hidden behind the frame. That's where the damage was and couldn't be removed.
The new frame had a deep rabbit and held the old frame in very well.

Close up view:

And finally, this frame:

Use your imagination to visualize what this looked like when the customer brought it in. The gold frame surrounding the outer mat is the original, and the original mat was pink. She originally only wanted to change out the mat.
I swapped out the pink mat with a mottled brown/rust/green mat, lined it with a gold and black fillet to add some dept to a picture that was loaded with depth, put that on top of a black antiqued mat to add an outline and then framed out the original frame with a black and gold embellished frame.The glass is sandwiched between the inner gold frame and the outer black one. I used museum glass for clarity and it turned out beautifully!