PICTURE FRAMES FROM OTHER MATERIALS

Concrete? Plywood? Picture frames?! Why not?! We enjoy experimenting with new designs and concepts here at SohoFrames. We like to say that we make picture frames for any creative vision, whether it is the actual design of the profile, the colour, or the material. We feel that some of these ideas show promise and this page showcases some of this work.

The frames and samples below were made using materials common in the building and construction trade, typically concrete, plywood or various grades and types, as well as OSB and MDF, which is a material we particularly like. The green moisture resistant variety is a favourite. When lacquered it has a ceramic appearance and feel. Together, with a little imagination, we can design and make beautiful unique frames from “ordinary” materials. If you would like a picture frame made from a building or construction material not seen here please contact us.

BUILDING MATERIALS

Three L-shaped concrete picture frame corners arranged in a staggered row on a white background.

CONCRETE BEVEL EDGE

This photograph shows our first attempts at making some picture frame chevrons from this material. The leftmost and centre samples were made with a plain rectangular profile shape. The sample on the left was made using “sculpture cement”, which is cement mixed with stone granules. The centre sample was made using “repair cement”, bought from a local builders’ merchant, and the remaining sample was made using our own blend of cement powders, more of which we will explain in a blog post.

Black and white photo of a rural road and trees, framed in a concrete picture frame and hanging on a white wall.

FINISHED CONCRETE FRAME

Finally, after much testing and the making of many more samples than shown here, we finished a complete frame (the artwork incidentally is a photograph of Magic Tree Road in Transylvania). The profile size is 30mm x 30mm.

Close-up of the corner of a textured, gray concrete picture frame surrounding a black and white photograph.

CONCRETE FRAME CORNER 1

A close-up of the utilitarian finish we like in these frames of ours.

Close-up of the textured, angled concrete picture frame corner with abstract black and white artwork inside.

CONCRETE FRAME CORNER 2

Another close-up but this time showing the inner part of the corner.

WOODEN BUILDING MATERIALS

Round, flat coaster with an outside lip made of OSB compressed wood chips, shown on a plain white background.

OSB

We kinda like OSB, or Oriented Strand Board, which is classed as an engineered wood product used throughout the construction industry, but also for other projects, in our case, picture frames. We lacquer the finished frames in acrylic, as per the coaster example in this photo, or finish using our own recipe of finishing oils.

A picture frame corner sample made from light coloured OSB compressed wood chips on a neutral background.

OSB HOCKEY STICK

We carved this example into a shortened hockey-stick profile. We can, of course carve any other examples required (smooth surfaces only, flat, curved, stepped, cushioned etc). Please ask for details.

PLYWOOD

PLYWOOD HOCKEY STICK

There are many different types of plywood, from the simple Spruce Plywood we made these samples from all the way up to Furniture Grade Birch Ply (there is also a gorgeous Japanese plywood product called Rainbow Plywood, which is constructed from sheets of ply and coloured papers, but not to our knowledge available in the UK in meaningful sizes (we tried).

L-shaped picture frame corner made from Spruce plywood with visible layers, placed on a white background.

PLYWOOD BEVEL EDGE

We like Spruce though! Profiles shown are examples only and can be customised in terms of shape and size. These we finished with a single coat of our own blend of finishing oil.

MDF

MDF HOCKEY STICK 1

We love this material, particularly the soft lines that mark the different layers. In this picture frame corner sample milled in our own workshop we layered the material vertically and then finished it with clear satin lacquer. Sample is an example so everything from profile shape to size can be customised.

MDF HOCKEY STICK 2

With this example, we used the same hockey stick profile but layered the material horizontally so the lines show on the curved front face of the picture frame. The satin lacquer used to seal and finish the sample gives it a gorgeous stone-ceramic feel.