Happy Spring everyone! I love this season, mostly for the incredible weather, but also because I love cleaning. I love to purge and redecorate, so there’s always a project going on at my house at this time of year.

Since you can get canvas so cheaply, it’s easy for anyone to be an artist and create beautiful artwork for their homes. Though it doesn’t need to be, it can be nice to add a frame to make a piece feel more permanent and professional. After having my DIY herringbone art displayed for so long, I decided it was time for a golden upgrade.

Like me, you will find that framing artwork is not cheap. For a piece of 2′ x 4′ artwork, I was quoted about $200. Ok, so we’re not framing this art then. Right?

After about six months of wanting to frame my artwork but not wanting to pay for it, I decided I could try my hand out at carpentry (because that’s a normal train of thought) and make some sort of wedged picture frame that would fit perfectly around the canvas. Since I live in a small apartment, I made this incredibly simple design that can be made without a full tool shop that only requires a couple of cuts that they will make for you at the hardware store.

In total, all you have to buy is four pieces of wood, four L-brackets, 16 screws, sandpaper, and gold paint to create a frame that snugly fits around your canvas. This all cost me about $8. The only necessary power tool needed is a power drill. I feel really strongly about power drills though, y’all. It is the MOST useful and amazing tool. I use mine all the time, especially for hanging paintings and putting together IKEA furniture. The life of a 20-something home decorator. Could I pitch that for a show on HGTV?

Takeaways: Spend $8 and make a gorgeous picture frame for your beautiful artwork. Oh, and buy yourself a power drill because they are the best investment ever. I have a Bosch and would recommend it in a heart beat.

DIY Canvas Picture Frame

Supplies:

4 2″x1″ Wood – 2 the length of your canvas, 2 the height of your canvas + 1.5″ (NOTE: wood that is 2″ x 1″ is not exactly at these dimensions so 1.5″ should be enough extra length)
4 L-brackets with 4 holes
16 3/8″ Screws
Sandpaper
Gold Acrylic Paint
Paint Brush
Pencil
Drill

1. Purchase wood at your hardware store that is 2″ x 1″ x the length described above. Since my canvas was 2′ x 4′, I purchased two pieces that were 4′ long and two pieces that were 25.5″ long. I bought my wood in 8′ lengths and they were able to cut them down to the sizes I needed. (NOTE: Make sure you buy wood that is as straight as possible! I purchased a piece that was a little warped and it ended up making the frame look totally wonky so I had to start over. Good thing the wood only costs about $1.50.) Take this wood home and sand all sides so that there are no splinters anywhere.

2. Paint all of your pieces of wood using the paint brush and gold paint. This could be done with spray paint as well, but the acrylic paint is cleaner if you don’t have space for spraying, like me! Let this dry for at least a couple of hours.

3. Line up your long piece of wood with the short piece on the outside of it and mark with a pencil where the l-bracket holes should go. The l-bracket should be lined up all the way to one side of the wood on the 2″ face so that the canvas can sit right in front of it when it is put together. Do this on all pieces of wood for all four corners. Drill holes part way through the wood with a drill bit smaller than the screw diameter to create a pilot hole. This makes screwing your screws in much simpler and cleaner.

4. Assemble the frame by screwing the screws into the l-brackets and wood. All you need to do now is pop your canvas right into the frame on the opposite side from the l-brackets and hang it up!