How to frame a print at home, properly

A good print badly framed looks worse than a bad print framed well. This is the full guide we hand to anyone who buys from us — the one that turns a kitchen-table afternoon into a frame that will protect the work for thirty years. No special tools, but a few non-negotiable rules.

Buy the materials in this order

The frame is the last thing you choose, not the first. Work inward from the wall to the paper:

• Acid-free mat board — this is what touches the print. Everything else is secondary.
• UV-filtering glazing — glass or acrylic rated to block at least 97% UV. Sunlight is the enemy.
• A rigid backing board, also acid-free.
• The frame itself, chosen to fit, never the other way around .

Frame the paper you have, not the frame you found. — framing room rule #1

The four measurements that matter

Most home framing fails at measuring. Get these four numbers right and the rest is assembly.

image width      = the printed area only (not the paper)
paper width      = the full sheet, including borders
window opening   = image width minus 6mm overlap per side
mat outer size   = window opening plus your chosen margin

That 6mm overlap is the single most forgotten detail. The mat window must be slightly smaller than the image so the print has something to sit behind. Cut the window the same size as the image and the print will slip and show a white edge within a season.

Hinging — the part you must not rush

Never glue a print down. Never tape it across the top edge with packing tape. The print must be allowed to expand and contract with humidity, or it will cockle (ripple). The correct method is a T-hinge made from gummed linen tape at the top two corners only — the print hangs from these hinges like a curtain.

1. Cut two short pieces of gummed linen tape.
2. Moisten and attach each, sticky side up, to the back of the print's top corners.
3. Cross each with a second piece of tape onto the backing board, forming a T.
4. Let it dry flat under light weight for an hour before closing the frame.

Assembly, in one sitting

Work in a dust-free a space as you can manage — a bathroom after a hot shower is ideal, because the steam settles airborne dust. Clean the glazing on both sides, lay it face down, then build the sandwich upward: glazing, mat, hinged print, backing. Hold it to the light at an angle before you seal it; one eyelash trapped under glass will haunt you forever.

Where to hang it

Two rules, both about light. First, never opposite a window — even UV glazing is a delay, not a force field, and direct sun will fade anything over years. Second, hang the center of the image at 145cm from the floor. It feels low if you are tall, but it is the height galleries use because it meets the average eye, and a room of pictures hung at one consistent height reads as calm rather than chaotic.

Hang for the room at rest, not for the person standing closest. — framing room rule #9

A short troubleshooting list

• Print ripples after a week? It was glued or taped flat. Re-hinge it.
• White edge creeping in? Window cut too large. Re-cut 6mm smaller.
• Condensation inside the glass? Framed in a humid room with a cold frame. Let materials acclimate first.Done well, framing is a quiet act of respect — for the print, and for whoever made it. Take the afternoon. It is worth it.