We have been meaning to get these framed for a long time, I thought maybe that time would be now.



They are not "special" or "valuable," but they were done by an artist from Mr. SK's hometown and they are of actual locations in that town. The one on the bottom right is the entrance to the shrine where the priest came from who married us. (try to parse that sentence!)

Anyway! Can anyone here give me some suggestions for choosing frames, and choosing the matting? (I called out Kluurs because of your art collection, Jodi bc art, and wtg bc you have such a good eye! But obviously suggestions from anyone are welcome!)

So, they are each approximately 10" x 7" (with border, 8.5" x 6.5" without the border). (and actually, they are an odd size so we'll have to special order the frames I'm guessing?)

The photo doesn't really do a good job of showing the colors, but the border is sort of a cream color...

So, we could get frames and mats so that the border on the print isn't seen at all, is that the best option?

What color should the mat be? Similar color to the border? Or maybe whiter? (The wall where they will go is a very neutral just off-white color, "navajo white" IIRC)

I want to hang them in the piano room, so I'm thinking black frames, super simple?

Any other advice for thinking about how to select frames?

The only way I can decide on a frame is to take a piece to the frame shop and put the samples next to the picture....I'm terrible at this sort of thing....

I'll be kluurs and jodi would have some great ideas....

Thanks WTG! I was hoping to avoid going to a store, but that might not be an option. :/

I uploaded some better photos, and also one of the prints on the piano room right now...



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One more, with more elaborate mat:



And this one, which was a gift. I love the print and matting but not the fancy frame. The three ones needing frames would go on the same wall as this:



Too much of a hodge podge??

I have taken things to the frame shop. The local guy has taken a look and then produced the perfect sample for the frame every
time.
I will pick you up at the airport. Let me know when.

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I will pick you up at the airport. Let me know when.

Those would be the most expensive frames ever!!!

Mrs. Miller has a website she uses where they will take your picture and show it in any frame they sell. It works very well.

Let me get the website for you. Yeah I don’t like that I would take her off that would be a little patio

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Yeah I don’t like that I would take her off that would be a little patio

?? Wrong thread?

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Mrs. Miller has a website she uses where they will take your picture and show it in any frame they sell. It works very well.

That sounds helpful!!

Btw here is the wall I’m thinking to hang them... they would go about the castle (ish) basically to the left of the piano print. Remember the new prints are pretty small. But maybe it will too lopsided ??

Here’s the wall:

Pictureframes.com

I didn’t believe it either.

I would go with a very slightly off white mat, and a simple black frame, low profile and thin, a matte metal would be nice. I like double mats, sometimes I like the inner mat to be a color that is in the painting. You are probably going to have to go to a frame shop, because it won’t be a standard size.

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I like double mats, sometimes I like the inner mat to be a color that is in the painting.

Yes, I generally like that as well... but it might not work with this if we treat them as a set... also, as I think about it, I think we need something between the lamp and the far corner...

A nice frame can really help to highlight a work. Here is a site with some suggestions. I use the same frame and mat for works that are going to frame similar works sharing a common space. A couple of my favorite works i used silk matting but then the framing can start to become expensive.

Still, if you're living with these for a lifetime... This is an example of how many of my woodblocks are framed - with a silk mat in this instance. I should note that this woodblock was already trimmed and thus I did not show the border of the print as I do with most woodblocks.



I did do a frame it yourself online site for a couple of lithographs (Frame Destination). It is less expensive, particularly if you can purchase a standard frame as opposed to going custom.

Here's an example. The types of frames are limited - and this was a thicker frame - approximately an inch and 3/8. Still, it is a nice frame.

Kluurs, thanks for those comments. YOur frames/mats here are lovely!

But... Gya, framing is expensive!!

Re your prints, you know how much I love Hasui, that one in the snow is one of my favorites!!

Separate from the framing questions, can I get some feedback on how I'm thinking of hanging?

I need that (admittedly somewhat odd) lamp there for piano-ing. But I'd like to have more on the wall without making the lamp look like a weird no-man's land. So this is what I'm thinking. (The prints in this thread would go on the left as a chunk of three, on the right, some print that we don't yet own).


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Do you think that will work?

I don't always get things right on the first (or second attempt). At first thought, I might move the modern looking piano picture to the other wall, bringing the abstract to the right of the lamp and having all of the woodblocks to the left thinking that thematically that might work better. Having nearly ever surface of our walls with art, I'd also plan ahead and think about if the addition of another picture might help to anchor everything.

There are a lot of people selling art locally for very reasonable prices. Here's a picture locally on Facebook marketplace for $8. Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace are good sources but ebay has some botanical prints that are wonderful for $15 or less.



This grouping - none of the botanical prints was more than $20.



Another source of art at reasonable prices is through estate sales. There are a couple of website that promote estate sales in one's area. Art goes cheap.

This piece was $17 at a resale shop.

Kluurs, did you then do all the framing or did you buy them that way?? (because if so, that's way more economical!)

What kinds of search terms do you use? I am now going to start searching that way!!

In any case, we just got home from spending way too much money on frames. (Well, maybe not, $310 to get 4 prints framed, is that too much or not?)

We ended up getting matte black frames, similar to the frame (except without the bevel) on this print we already have:

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The three prints that are in the set are kind of small so we choose a slight thinner frame, and then we added one other print (in a fit of inspiration from something that was already in our house but not framed) which is larger, so that one has the same kind of frame but slightly thicker.

And we chose very simple, cream colored matting (the four prints had very similar colored border around them already, so we used the same color matting for all four prints).

They showed up different matting options (like where you have cream, then a color, then cream again) but I decided I liked it better with the more simple presenation.

Ok, now I'm super excited to get them back!



They said it would take two weeks (possibly sooner)