Wood vs Metal Picture Frames: How to Choose

Most picture frames in the UK are made of wood, and for most work that is the right answer. Metal frames earn their place at the extremes: very large work, very slim profiles, and a particular contemporary register that timber cannot honestly imitate. We build both, timber in the joinery workshop and welded aluminium in a dedicated metalwork department, so this guide has no side to take. It sets out how the two are built, where each one is genuinely better, what they cost, and the point at which the decision stops being a matter of taste.

The short answer

Choose wood for paintings, works on paper under glass, photographs in domestic and period interiors, gilded and traditional frames, and box frames for objects, which between them cover most framing under about 1.2 metres. Choose metal, which in practice means welded aluminium, for oversized work, for the slimmest possible face at any size, for face-mounted prints and heavy panels, for contemporary photography, for gallery hangs with security fixings, and for circular frames. Above about 1.2 metres on the long edge the structural case for metal starts, and past 2 metres it is usually decisive.

How the two are built

A timber frame is made from a moulding profile machined from solid wood, mitred at the corners, then glued and pinned. The strength of the corner comes from the adhesive bond between two cut faces of timber. That is more than enough at domestic sizes, and it has been the standard construction for centuries for good reason: timber is warm, takes almost any finish, and can be machined to any profile from a slim slip to a 150mm box.

A welded metal frame is made from an extruded aluminium profile, mitred and TIG-welded at the corners. There is no glue line and no pin. The corner is structurally continuous with the rest of the profile, and because the profile is an extrusion it can be drawn in shapes timber cannot match: thin walls with high stiffness, square-edged sections, deep hollow boxes. Subframes and cross-bracing can be welded inside the visible frame, and hanging plates, cleats and security fixings welded directly into the back. Our guide to what a welded picture frame is covers the process in detail. We also work in brass and stainless steel, but aluminium is the default for picture framing because of its strength for its weight.

Weight and strength

This is where the two materials separate. Aluminium has the higher strength-to-weight ratio, and at 2 to 3 metres a welded aluminium frame is typically lighter than the artwork it carries. Timber needs more section as the frame gets bigger, so it gets heavier at exactly the point where the wall fixings are being asked to hold more, and the corner joint becomes the weakest point. Once a piece is over roughly 1.2 metres on the long edge, and certainly past 2 metres, the accumulated weight of canvas, glazing, mount and backing puts more force on a glued mitre than it can hold over time. A welded corner spreads that load across the whole cross-section of the profile.

Large timber frames are still built, and built well, but they need a braced subframe behind them and they weigh a great deal. Welded aluminium does the same job in a lighter, slimmer frame, which is why it is our preferred construction for large picture frames. The workshop has completed welded frames up to 4.5 by 3.5 metres, and the practical limit is set by transport rather than by the welding.

Profile width: the 5mm face

Timber gets its stiffness from bulk. The slimmer the moulding, the less material the corner has to hold with, so a very slim timber profile is limited in the size of work it can carry before it twists or the mitre opens. Aluminium gets its stiffness from the alloy and from the shape of the extrusion rather than from bulk. A welded aluminium frame can hold a face as slim as 5mm while supporting artwork several metres wide, which no timber frame can do. If what you want on the wall is the picture and almost no frame, at any real size, that is the reason to choose metal, and it is the single most common reason clients come to our welded picture frames service.

Finishes

Wood takes a wider range of finishes than most people realise. Stained, oiled or waxed to show the grain. Gessoed and gilded with real gold leaf. Painted or sprayed to any colour, matched to a paint sample or a RAL reference in our spray booth. The choice of timber sets the starting point, and our comparison of oak and walnut frames shows how much two species differ before any finish goes on.

Metal has its own vocabulary. Raw mill finish for an honest industrial look. Brushed, a unidirectional satin finish sealed against fingerprints, which reads as true metal close up and as a soft even tone across a room. Polished, sanded and buffed to a bright metallic glow. Anodised, most often black or silver, a converted surface that is durable, consistent across a batch and does not chip the way paint does. Sprayed to any RAL colour in matt, satin or gloss. Patinated, particularly on brass. Finish affects the price of a metal frame more than most clients expect, with painted finishes typically above raw or anodised.

Where wood is the better choice

• Oils and acrylics on canvas in a tray or floating frame, where the warmth of the timber sits naturally against the paint. Our canvas framing service covers tray and floating frames in both materials, and timber is the usual choice.

• Watercolours, drawings, prints and photographs under glass in a domestic or period interior.

• Anything gilded, and anything that needs to sit alongside antique frames.

• Box frames for shirts, medals, textiles and objects. Timber is machined to whatever depth the object needs, from 30mm through to 150mm and beyond.

• Warm colour schemes and rooms with a lot of natural material already in them.

• Most work under about 1.2 metres, where the structural case for metal has not yet started and the cost of fabrication is not justified.

Where metal is the better choice

• Oversized work of any kind. Past 2 metres this is a structural decision rather than an aesthetic one.

• Face-mounted prints on dibond, acrylic-faced photographs and heavy panels, where the frame is doing structural work.

• Contemporary photography, where a slim black or silver profile is the convention. Metal also contains no lignin to off-gas inside the frame, which is one reason it is often specified for conservation-framed photographs.

• Gallery hangs that need a consistent profile across a series and integrated security fixings or bespoke hanging plates welded into the frame.

• Hospitality and commercial feature walls, where durability and an even finish at scale matter and sprayed aluminium in matt or satin is the usual specification.

• Circular frames, which are better executed in metal than in wood.

• Large pieces glazed in acrylic, where the metal profile allows for the thermal movement of the sheet.

• Pieces where the welded corner is meant to be seen, and the square-edged profile is part of the work.

What each one costs

Custom timber framing at Harten starts from around £200 for a standard piece. Welded aluminium frames start from around £500. The pattern behind those figures is worth understanding. A metal frame carries a higher fixed cost, because cutting, welding, refining the joint and finishing the metal take specialist time and equipment whatever the size, so a small metal frame is proportionately expensive. As the work gets larger the gap narrows, because the timber alternative needs heavier section, a braced subframe and usually acrylic glazing, while the aluminium frame simply gets longer. For a piece over 2 metres the welded frame is often the more economical build as well as the better one.

Finish moves the price of a metal frame more than size does at the smaller end. Museum-grade glazing on a 2 metre piece is a meaningful share of the total on its own, in either material. Our guide to custom framing costs covers the timber side across every format, and our guide to oversized framing costs covers the point where the two materials meet.

Mixing the two

The choice is not always one or the other. A walnut box frame with a brass slip inside it, an aluminium tray with a timber liner, a timber frame with a slim metal spacer holding the glazing off the work: combinations like these come up regularly, and they exist because the two materials do different jobs well. Timber gives the outer edge warmth and presence. Metal gives a precise, slim line right next to the artwork, or the structure that lets a large piece hang safely. When a piece wants both, it can have both.

Decision matrix

Between 1.2 and 2 metres is the genuinely open ground, and the answer depends on the weight of the piece, how slim you want the profile and where the budget sits. Send us the dimensions and a photograph and we will tell you which way it falls and why. Both constructions are built in our workshop in Bollington, where we have been framing since 1974, and both carry our 5 year guarantee.