I framed a print badly once, in a shop, in about ninety seconds, because a very nice person asked me what I wanted and I panicked and said "the gold one."
It was the wrong gold. It was bright, and new, and the picture it was holding was soft and grey and 1890, and the whole thing looked like a paperback in a leather binding.
Here is what I should have known.
The 30-Second Answer
Match the frame to the period the painting belongs to, then to its palette, then to its medium — in that order.
Old Masters and Baroque want wide ornate gold (7–15 cm), no mat, no glass. Impressionism wants narrower, warmer, softer gold or natural wood (5–7 cm), no mat, no glass. Pop art and contemporary abstraction want a bare 5 cm white or black rectangle, or no frame at all. Works on paper — prints, ukiyo-e, photographs — want a mat and UV glazing, whatever the era.
The three rules that do most of the work
- The frame's era should match the painting's era, not your sofa's. Framing an 1875 Monet in a 2020 minimalist strip is not neutral — it reads as a mistake, because the visual language of the period expects an ornamented gilt border. The reverse is worse: a Warhol in a carved gold Baroque frame reads as a joke.
- Warm palette → warm metal (gold, bronze, mahogany). Cool palette → cool metal (silver, grey, black). This single rule fixes more bad framing than any other, and it is the one I broke in that shop.
- Paint gets no glass; paper gets glass and a mat. An oil or acrylic on canvas should never be glazed. A print, drawing, watercolour or photograph should always be — with a mat holding it off the glass.
Framing Is Two Decisions, and Most People Only Make One
The decision people think they're making is "which frame do I like?"
The decision that actually determines whether the result looks right is a pair.
Decision A — the period register. Every art movement was framed a particular way at the time, and that convention is now baked into how the image reads. The frame is not neutral packaging; it was part of the original viewing contract. Museums treat it that way — by the 1860s the National Gallery in London was already re-framing its Italian pictures in Renaissance-revival cassetta frames, deliberately, as a curatorial act.
Decision B — the presentation format. Framed with an outer moulding? Stretched and wrapped with no frame? Floated with a shadow gap? Matted under glass? This is set by medium and substrate, not by period. A giclée on paper and a giclée on canvas of the same image want completely different treatments.
Get A right and the picture looks like it belongs to its century. Get B right and it survives. Get both right and you've spent between $30 and $500 doing what a museum does.
The Four Variables, in the Order They Matter
Profile width — the single most-noticed variable
| Work size | Conservative frame width | Wide / period frame width |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 30 × 40 cm (12 × 16 in) | 2.5–4 cm | 5 cm |
| 40 × 50 to 60 × 80 cm | 4–5 cm | 6–8 cm |
| 90 × 120 cm and up | 5–7 cm | 10–15 cm |
Two working rules from the trade:
- The 80/20 rule — in a well-proportioned framed piece the artwork occupies roughly 80% of the total framed area and the frame-plus-mat about 20%.
- The 57–75% wall rule — the finished piece should span 57–75% of the wall or furniture beneath it. An 84 in (213.4 cm) sofa wants 50–63 in (127–160 cm) of framed art above it.
Finish and colour temperature
| Dominant palette | Finish that works | Finish that fights it |
|---|---|---|
| Reds, ochres, ambers, browns, golds | Antique gold, bronze, mahogany, warm walnut | Cool silver, stark white |
| Blues, greys, greens, whites, pastels | Champagne silver, matte grey, black, natural pale wood | Bright yellow gold |
| High-vibrance saturated flats (pop art, neon) | Clean white or clean black, no ornament | Any gold, any patina, any texture |
| Black and white / monochrome | Black, silver or white — one of the three, consistently | Warm gold, wood grain |
| Muted, chalky, low-vibrance | Textured or patinated finishes — some age in the surface | Flat, glossy, brand-new-looking finishes |
Note the asymmetry in the third row, because it's the whole design principle in one line: ornament is additive for historical work and subtractive for modern work. A Baroque painting has enough visual density to hold a carved acanthus border. A Lichtenstein has none to spare.
Mat or no mat — a question about substrate, not era
| Work | Mat? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Oil / acrylic on canvas or panel | No | There's nothing to hold off glass, because there is no glass. A mat would be structurally meaningless |
| Print, drawing, watercolour, pastel, photograph on paper | Yes | The mat's real job is as a spacer: it keeps the paper off the glass, where condensation and static cause sticking and mould. Aesthetics are secondary |
| Print you want shown with its deckle or margins | Float mount, no window mat | Hinged onto the backing so the whole sheet including edges is visible, still spaced off the glass |
| Canvas print / gallery wrap | No — use a float frame | Holds the stretcher from behind, leaving a shadow gap of about 1 cm so the canvas appears to hover |
Mat sizing: 2 in (5.1 cm) for small work, 2.5–3 in (6.3–7.6 cm) medium, 3–4 in (7.6–10.2 cm) large. Always wider than the frame moulding. And weight the bottom 10–20% wider than the top and sides, because equal borders create an optical illusion that the image is sinking.
An honest gap, stated plainly: TopImpressionists.com does not currently sell a cut mat as an option. The framed-paper product is print + frame + glass. If you want a matted, museum-standard presentation of a paper print, buy the print unframed and take it to a local framer. That's the one place in this guide where the budget competitor genuinely wins — Framebridge and IKEA both include a mat.
Glazing — the rule almost every DIY guide gets wrong
Do not put glass over an oil or acrylic painting on canvas. Close to universal conservation practice, for four separate reasons:
- Oil keeps curing for years. It emits solvent and oxidation by-products long after touch-dry. Glazing traps them.
- Trapped moisture. A sealed cavity with a hygroscopic canvas in it is a mould risk.
- Impasto is the point. Glazing flattens the reading of relief — you lose the exact quality you paid a hand-painter for.
- Reflection. Tate's own position is that conservators regard glazing as a necessary evil for works that require it, with a list of costs: reduced light transmission, reflections, colour casts, distortion, breakage risk, static, condensation, thermal instability.
The exception: oil or acrylic on paper or thin card should be glazed. The paint doesn't need protection; the paper does.
| Glazing | UV block | Anti-reflective | Cost signal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard clear glass / acrylic | ~45% | No | Baseline |
| Conservation Clear (UV) | 99% | No | +20–30% over standard |
| Museum Glass (AR + UV) | 99% | Yes — near-invisible | 2–3× standard; framers quote $80–200 per piece at larger sizes |
If you buy one upgrade for a paper work, buy UV, not anti-reflective. UV is preservation; AR is aesthetics.
The Era-by-Era Matrix
Prices are the real computed price for that frame on a 50 × 70 cm work, shipping included — not a "from" price.
| Era / movement | Period | Historical convention | Width | Finish | Mat? | Glass? | Price (50×70) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medieval & early Renaissance panel | 1300–1450 | Tabernacle / aedicule frames — architectural, columns and pediment, engaged with the panel | 10 cm+ | Water-gilt gold, heavy relief | No | No | $346–$422 |
| Italian Renaissance | 1450–1600 | The cassetta ("small box") — flat central frieze between matched inner and outer mouldings — the dominant secular and portrait frame | 6–8 cm | Gold, or gold on a dark ground | No | No | $220–$256 |
| Dutch Golden Age | 1600–1680 | Ebonised ripple frames — black, wave-moulded, deliberately anti-ostentatious. True ebony was scarce, so most were ebonised softwood. Vermeer and Rembrandt sat in these while France and Italy gilded | 5–7 cm, deep | Black, matte-to-satin, rippled | No | No | $212–$278 |
| French Baroque — Louis XIII / XIV | 1610–1715 | Louis XIII: continuous running leaf carving, no corner cartouches. Louis XIV: symmetrical C-scrolls, strapwork, corner emphasis | 7–15 cm | Water-gilt gold, deeply carved | No | No | $220–$422 |
| Rococo — Louis XV | 1720–1760 | Organic asymmetry, pierced carving, elaborate gesso texturing — the most extravagant French frame ever made | 8–15 cm | Bright and burnished gold | No | No | $236–$346 |
| Neoclassical & Empire | 1760–1830 | Concave moulding filled with palmettes or anthemia over a flat frieze; a fully gilded surface is the signature. Mass-produced for a rising bourgeoisie | 6–8 cm | Even, complete gilding | No | No | $212–$236 |
| Romanticism, Barbizon, Salon | 1820–1880 | Heavy revival gilding. The Salon's institutional rule was that no picture could hang without a gold frame | 7–10 cm | Gold, often patinated | No | No | $236–$270 |
| Impressionism ⭐ | 1874–1900 | The convention is a paradox. What the market calls an "Impressionist frame" is an eighteenth-century revival that Monet and his dealers actively sought. But the painters rebelled: by the 1877 exhibition Degas and Pissarro were showing in white frames, and in 1879–80 used coloured frames chosen against the canvas — green for a red sunset, matte yellow for a purplish canvas, rose for a green spring landscape. Degas fumed when work sent to America in modest white frames came back painted over in gold | 5–7 cm | Warm, weathered, patinated gold — not bright new gold. Or natural wood. Or, if you follow the artists rather than the market, plain white | No | No | $212–$278 |
| Post-Impressionism & Symbolism | 1885–1910 | Artist-designed frames become normal; painted and coloured frames spread from the Impressionist experiment | 5–6 cm | Muted gold, painted, or natural | No | No | $215–$278 |
| American Impressionism & Arts and Crafts | 1890–1920 | Hand-carved, hand-gilded, signed frames from Newcomb-Macklin and Carrig-Rohane. Architect Stanford White designed frames per painting — tabernacle forms, pierced foliate patterns, basket weaves, fish scales | 6–8 cm | Soft leaf gold over gesso, often oak underneath | No | No | $220–$233 |
| Art Nouveau & Vienna Secession | 1890–1910 | Frames as part of the Gesamtkunstwerk. Klimt commissioned frames from his brother Georg Klimt, a metalworker — the Pallas Athene frame carries the goddess's name in capitals along its top rail | 5–7 cm | Gold, brass, patinated copper | No | No | $215–$245 |
| Modernism, Bauhaus, School of Paris | 1910–1945 | The break. Ornament goes; the frame becomes a boundary rather than an event | 4–5 cm | Flat white, flat black, plain natural wood | No | No | $215 |
| Abstract Expressionism & Colour Field | 1945–1970 | Robert Kulicke's welded aluminium strip frame, commissioned by MoMA in 1956 for travelling exhibitions, became the standard. Kline and Motherwell pushed him to make frames thin enough to disappear | 2–4 cm, or none | Bare metal, black, or nothing | No | No | $122–$215 |
| Pop Art ⭐ | 1955–1975 | Frameless, or the thinnest possible boundary. The work is graphic, saturated and edge-to-edge; ornament competes and loses. Acrylic face-mount adds depth without ornament | 5 cm max — or zero | Clean white to make colour pop, clean black for contrast. No patina, no texture, no gold, ever | Optional — a bold wide mat is a legitimate pop move on paper | Paper yes + UV; canvas no | $122–$215 |
| Minimalism & contemporary abstraction | 1965– | Float frames became the modern standard: the canvas is held from behind, a shadow gap runs around it, nothing overlaps the image | 2–4 cm face, deep rebate | Black, white, raw metal, natural | No | No | $122–$215 |
| Contemporary photography | 1900– | The gallery standard is a thin black frame with a generous white mat — a deliberate non-design so nothing competes with the image | 2–4 cm | Black or white, matte | Yes — 2–4 in (5.1–10.2 cm), weighted bottom | Yes, UV | frame $215; framed print from $77 |
| Japanese woodblock prints (ukiyo-e) | 1650–1900 | Conservation framing is not optional: acid-free mat and backing, Japanese paper or glassine hinges at the top edge only, water-activated linen tape, no adhesives, UV glazing. Small prints often floated to show the full sheet | 2–4 cm, quiet | Black, dark wood, natural | Yes — or float | Yes, UV, mandatory | $212–$225 |
| Street art & urban contemporary | 1980– | No inherited convention. Practice divides between raw (unframed canvas, exposed staples) and hard-edged (box frame or acrylic face-mount) | 0 or 3–5 cm | Black, white, or none | No | No | $122–$215 |
⭐ = the two rows most people arrive looking for.
One-line version: Frame to the painting's period first — Old Masters and Baroque take wide ornate gold (7–15 cm), no mat, no glass; Impressionism takes narrower warm patinated gold or natural wood (5–7 cm), no mat, no glass; pop art and contemporary abstraction take a bare 5 cm white or black profile or no frame at all; and anything on paper takes a mat plus UV glazing regardless of era.
Five Mistakes That Cost More Than the Frame
- Bright new gold on an Impressionist painting. The Impressionist palette is broken colour and high-key light; hard yellow gold flattens it. The period-correct finish is patinated, weathered, warm. If in doubt, natural wood is safer than the wrong gold. (This was my mistake. It cost me £180 and a year of mild irritation every time I walked past.)
- Glass over an oil painting. It looks protective and it is the single most common conservation error made by well-meaning owners.
- A mat narrower than the frame. Reads as a manufacturing error. The mat must be wider than the moulding.
- Equal mat borders all round. Optically the image sinks. Weight the bottom by 10–20%.
- Buying the frame before measuring the wall. The 57–75% rule is not a style preference. A correctly-framed piece at the wrong scale still looks wrong.
Head to Head: Price, Benchmarked
Two things about TopImpressionists.com's numbers that change how they compare to everyone else's, stated openly:
- Shipping is inside the frame price. The cost of moving a framed, rigid, boxed item rather than a rolled tube is already in the number. So a $215 frame here is not directly comparable to a $175 frame quoted before delivery.
- Large frames get cheaper per centimetre. Above 105 cm in either dimension a kit-frame discount applies, because the frame ships flat as a kit rather than assembled.
| Source | What's included | Period range? | Price at ~50 × 70 cm |
|---|---|---|---|
| IKEA (RÖDALM, ex-RIBBA) | Frame + mount + glazing, fixed sizes | None | $29.99–49.99 |
| Simply Framed | Custom frame, ordered online | Modern only | $80–113 |
| Framebridge | Frame + mat + UV acrylic + hardware | Modern only | $175–200 (+ ~$25 large-item shipping) |
| TopImpressionists.com | Frame only, no mat, shipping included | Full period range, medieval to street art | $212–$278 wood and moulded profiles; $346–$422 hand-finished wood-and-gesso baroque |
| AllPaintingsStore.com | Frame only, shipping included; standard sizes and mounts | Broad | $212–$422 |
| BuyPopArt.com | Thin white/black, gallery wrap $122, rolled $0 | Deliberately minimal — the pop position | $122–$224 |
| Reproduction Gallery | Framing service + gallery wrap alternative | Not itemised publicly | Painting $299–$329; framing not published |
| TOPofART | Mounting and framing offered for canvas prints | Not published | Not published |
| Fabulous Masterpieces (UK) | Paintings from £197 + VAT; framing not advertised | Not stated | Not stated |
| MFA Images (Boston) | Wood frame selection built into the order flow, on archival pigment replicas | Museum-standard selection | By order form / mfaprints.org |
| Antique period frame | The genuine object. No artwork included | Genuine | avg. ~$2,171 (1stDibs); record $1.4 million |
Three honest readings of that table.
IKEA wins on price and loses on period, completely. Thirty dollars for a frame, mount and glazing is a genuinely good product — for a modern print. There is no IKEA cassetta. There is no IKEA Louis XV. If your picture is from before 1900, the cheap row simply cannot serve you.
Almost nobody in the reproduction trade publishes a framing price. Scroll that column: "not published," "not itemised," "not stated." That's not evasion — framing cost is driven by perimeter and by shipping a bulky box, and a bulky box across an ocean is where the money goes. Which is precisely why the vendors who do publish a number are the ones who've folded freight into it.
And the last row is a different hobby. A genuine antique frame averages seven times the most expensive frame in this guide and has a record at $1.4 million. That's not framing. That's collecting frames, which is a real and wonderful pursuit and has nothing to do with what goes round your Monet.
Frequently Asked Questions
How should I frame an Impressionist painting?
Warm, weathered, patinated gold or natural wood at 5–7 cm, no mat, no glass. Avoid bright new gold. And know the paradox: the "Impressionist frame" the market sells is an eighteenth-century revival the dealers wanted, while the painters themselves were showing in white by 1877 and in coloured frames chosen against the canvas by 1879.
Should I put glass over an oil painting?
No. Oil keeps curing for years; glazing traps what it emits, risks trapped moisture, and flattens the impasto you paid for. The only exception is oil or acrylic on paper.
How wide should a mat be?
2 in (5.1 cm) small, 2.5–3 in (6.3–7.6 cm) medium, 3–4 in (7.6–10.2 cm) large — always wider than the frame moulding, with the bottom border 10–20% wider than the other three sides.
Conservation glass or museum glass?
Conservation Clear blocks 99% UV at +20–30% over standard. Museum Glass adds anti-reflective coating at 2–3× standard. Buy UV first. UV is preservation; AR is aesthetics.
How should I frame a pop art print?
Frameless, or 5 cm at most, in clean white or clean black. No patina, no texture, no gold. On paper a bold wide mat works because it behaves like a second colour block; on canvas, gallery wrap or float.
The Verdict
Work out what century the picture is from. Look at whether the colours are warm or cool. Check whether it's paint or paper.
Three questions, in that order, and you will never say "the gold one" in a shop again.
Further Reading
- F.A.Q. Professional Framing and Gallery Wrap Options
- Beyond the Print — why glazing an oil costs you the thing you bought.
- Abstract Expressionism's Ten Defining Masterpieces — the gesture that made the welded strip necessary.
- Ten Iconic Pop Art Masterpieces — the best argument for a thin white edge.
Sources
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Italian Renaissance Frames"; Paul Mitchell Ltd, "The Cassetta"; The Frame Blog (Degas's frames, Pissarro, Impressionist antique frames); Ripple Molding, "Ebony, Light, and Restraint"; Gold Leaf Studios, "The Age of Louis."
- Prices4Antiques, "Cornering the Market: Newcomb-Macklin Frames"; Artnet News on Klimt's gilding; Artforum obituary of Robert Kulicke; A Street Frames on the metal section frame.
- Tate conservation guidance on glazing; Tru-Vue product specifications for Conservation Clear and Museum Glass; NEDCC and CCAHA on light damage.
- Austin Gallery, "How Wide Should a Picture Mat Be?"; American Frame, "Playing with Proportions"; HomeGuide, "How Much Does Custom Picture Framing Cost?"
- IKEA RÖDALM listings; Framebridge and Simply Framed pricing pages; 1stDibs antique gilded frame listings; Antiques and The Arts Weekly on the Eli Wilner collection.
- Reproduction Gallery, TOPofART, Fabulous Masterpieces and MFA Images archival replicas — published framing offers, August 2026.
- Frame prices quoted live from the published TopImpressionists.com, AllPaintingsStore.com and BuyPopArt.com order pages at 50 × 70 cm, with worldwide shipping included.
