What is The Best Frame Finish For Your Art?

Here at Sohoframes we offer bespoke finishes for our bespoke picture frames. Let’s look at the options. 

Raw Wood: Rustic and Natural Wood Frames

Sometimes, clients prefer a raw or unfinished surface for their picture frames. Solid woods like oak, walnut, ash, pine, etc. have a natural beauty. 

We can “finish” the surface by milling or sanding to various degrees of smoothness or make the surface even rougher or more unfinished as desired. Over time, the wood will change colour and develop its patina. This type of rustic wood frame or natural wood frame offers a unique, evolving aesthetic.

Natural Wax: Oil Finished Wood with Natural Wax Finish

We usually finish the wood with 320 or 400-grit paper to achieve a very smooth, even look. We then enhance the shine with natural waxes or oils of various types to achieve the desired level of shine.

This can be anything from a soft satin look to highly polished. This oil-finished wood with a natural wax finish provides both beauty and protection for your frames.

Shellac Finish for French Polish Frames

We began French Polishing frames quite a few years ago and have developed our techniques specifically for picture frames. French Polish gives a beautiful, deep, translucent polish, unlike any other finish. 

We use traditional “ingredients”: shellac, which can be blond, garnet, or black (and we often polish in other colours, too by staining both the wood and polish with various pigments), pure alcohol (yes, we need a license to buy this!), and mineral oil, which we use to glide the polish onto the wood. Please remember that a French polish frame is not waterproof. Remove dust from the picture frame with a soft cloth.

Gilded Picture Frames and 24k Gold Leaf Frames

To monitor quality and to improve turnaround times, we also gild in-house in our Soho picture frame workshop. Gilding is the art of applying very thin layers of gold to the carefully prepared surface of the picture frame. Because of its superior lustre and stunning colour, we gild in 24k gold, but also employ other metal foils when silver or copper finishes are required. 

To arrive at a similar gold colour, we sometimes also use gold foil, which is not pure gold. The finish is still superb and has a much lower price point than real gold. The type of gilding we do here is oil gilding. When finished, we seal the gold with clear lacquer. This link will take you to our gilding page where you can see gilded examples of some of the profiles we offer. Our gilded picture frames, gold leaf frames, and 24k gold frames offer a luxurious and elegant finish.

Custom Color and Pantone Color Frames

We custom spray many frames, both rectangular and circular. We offer three types of basic finish: matt, satin, and mirror gloss. Matt is what it is and gives a very “flat” finish to the frame. The most popular finish is satin, which has a nice gentle sheen and is usually matt paint with approximately 10% gloss added. We can improve the shine all the way up to 40% gloss. 

After this, we call the finish “gloss,” and this requires additional coats of lacquer, sanding back between each and then polishing until a mirror shine is achieved. We spray with 2-pack acrylic. The colour palettes we work with are the RAL codes, but we also match many interior decor colours like Dulux and F&B, as well as doing our best to match Pantone colours, which are ink codes used in the printing industry.

For further information, please see the custom colour page here. Our custom color frames and Pantone color frames ensure a perfect match for any interior design.