How to Build a Picture Frame for Thrifted Art

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I’m always grabbing unframed art from thrift stores and flea markets and here is one way I add a simple skinny frame.

A colorful room with framed portraits on the wall, a sculpture of a peacock on a shelf, and an artificial palm tree beside a lamp. The decor includes plants and various decorative items.

Story Time: I have a storage room filled with random thrifted art. I love it. There’s nothing more beautiful to me than a boldly painted piece by someone in a college art class, for example. Early artist sketches? Amazing. Most of the time, the pieces I’m drawn to are in some pile I have to pick through and they are rarely framed. I’ve perfected a few different ways to frame these thrifted pieces and today I’m sharing one of the easiest techniques.

A portrait painting of a woman with wavy dark hair wearing a white ruffled blouse and a black ribbon. She has gold earrings and is gazing to the side. The portrait is set on a wooden surface with a hand holding it.

The painting above is AMAZING, but you can see it’s on a skinny canvas board. Sure, I could take this to get mounted and framed and it would look lovely, but probably cost a couple hundred dollars. Until I have that kicking around, I’m going to add a simple skinny frame to tide me over!

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A hand holding the corner of a painted canvas with a portrait of a woman in a white blouse. The canvas is resting on a wooden table with paint marks.

Often, when I make frames, I attach the frame directly to the artwork. With something as skinny as this, obviously that’s not an option with this painting. THIS material is my secret weapon.

Step 1. _Measure for Frame

I wanted the art to ‘float’ ever so slightly within this frame and honestly I probably could have added 1/8″ to my frame. Measure the INSIDE length and width of you corner molding and make sure it will fit your artwork.

A person measures a portrait painting on a wooden table using a tape measure. The painting, featuring a woman with dark hair and yellow earrings, is positioned upside down. The person wears a blue shirt and gold bracelets.

Step 2. Cut the Frame with _Mitered Edges

A clean mitered edge is *key* to making your frame look elevated and polished. Be warned, this is easier said than done and I still screw it up 50% of the time. Mistakes I make most frequently when trying to make a clean mitered edge: not checking my miter saw… if the blade is even slightly off, the corner will be slightly off. Check that your blade is cutting at 90-degrees to the table and then make sure you’ve rotated it exactly 45-degrees for the cut.

A person using a circular saw to cut a piece of wood in a workshop. Safety goggles are on their head, and they are surrounded by various tools and wooden boards.

Step 3. _Assemble Frame

Because this trim is so skinny, I glued the corners. I used a small bead of wood glue on each corner and laid them all out on my work table making sure that each corner was square at 90-degrees. I used a speed square for this and then double checked by measuring diagonally corner to corner…. if everything is square, both diagonals will be the same length. You can see I used both clamps and some painters tape to secure everything will the glue dried.

A wooden work table in a cluttered workshop holds a white rectangular frame secured by red and black clamps. Green tape is placed on the corners of the frame. Various tools and equipment are visible in the background.

Step 4. _Paint the Frame

They make this molding in unpainted pine, but I’m using primed pine so intend to paint. I lightly sanded the edges and then gave it a coat of spray paint.

A bright yellow-green picture frame being spray-painted on a cardboard surface, with several cans of spray paint in the background.

Step 5. Add _Art to Frame

I opted to add my artwork to a thin piece of scrap 1/4″ plywood I had on hand just to give it a bit more heft. If you don’t have scrap wood lying around, you can add a strip of thick tape underneath your artwork to bring it forward in the frame a bit OR… just mount as is. All options will work, it’s just a personal preference! I used these removable museum dots to secure both my painting to the plywood and the plywood to the frame. If I ever change my mind and want to get this painting professionally framed, I can easily remove it from the plywood with no damage to the canvas board.