Custom Box Frames - Expertly Crafted
When your artwork is displayed with museum quality box framing, you won't be the only one to notice.
Features
Extra Large?
We specialise in oversized, meaning your box frame can be customised to any length. Frames this large can act as a centerpiece and really pull your space together.
Hand Painted
Your profile can be expertly painted in any colour required to match your artwork or environment. This cost-effective finish can be further enhanced with techniques such as stippling, veiling, patination and distressing.
“I started using Harten Frameworks six years ago. These guys are the best framers in the UK, they focus on my needs and always deliver. ”
Lincoln TownleyArtist
Description
What Are Bespoke Box Frames?
Our made-to-measure box frames are expertly crafted
Works such as oil on canvas, books, tiles and textiles are often displayed using box frames. Original art on paper and limited edition prints are also frequently presented in a box frame, floated to demonstrate the full edge to edge glory.
Box frames are deeper than traditional frames, so need a deeper profile to allow room for the art. Glass spacers are used to keep the glass or acrylic from touching the art.
Every box frame we produce is handmade and completely unique, tailor-made to the perfect size for the item you wish to be framed. We use conservation level techniques to house the artwork safely inside the frame and high quality woods and metals for the outer frame profile.
Get your project started
Let's get your art framed
Get a bespoke design brief for your project. Each frame is uniquely designed and manufactured in house by our expert framers.
Craftsmanship
Specialists in Box Frames
All custom boxframes come with our 5 year craftmanship guarantee
Welded Metal Picture Frames
Using our metal workshop, we manufacture welded frames to any specification and size. All in house.
The framing of my piece has really made a statement in our new home, for a price that was unrivalled by any local competitors.
Finishes
Finishes & Materials
Our box frames have options for finishes and materials
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Sprayed
Spraying is our most popular finish, with benefits including invisible frame corner joins on metal profiles, a smooth high quality effect and a choice of colours and glosses. It gives contemporary museum quality to any artwork.
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Staining
A versatile option that can be used to enhance grain, add colouring and even out natural surfaces. This is best used on natural woods.
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Waxed
We use wax when sealing raw wood, enhancing the grain and natural colours.
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Corten
A beautiful natural process of ageing steel, corten gives an organic-like ebb and flow of oranges and caramel. This unique finish is created though a careful chemical reaction on wood and metal. The result is a natural rust which is then sealed with clear lacquer to protect it.
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Burn Back
Gives modern rustic aesthetic with deep texture and ageing effects. The process involves carefully burning the wood. Ash or obeche wood has the best grain effect for this technique.
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Gilding
After laying a gesso base, gilding can be applied using leaves of many metals, including gold, silver, bronze, copper & aluminium. This gives a luxury finish with a huge range of custom styles including patination, scuffing, rub through and burnishing. There are water-gilding and oil-gilding processes available depending on what is needed.
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Hand Finished Woods
Our team handcraft our wooden frames in house from a range of species including beech, oak, walnut, rock maple, ash, cherry and pine guaranteeing a high quality finish every time.
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Hand Finished Metals
We’ve developed our metalwork extensively recently, with our team now welding both custom aluminium and brass frames to suit a number of different shapes and styles.
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Acrylic Options
Acrylic is naturally 70% UV resistant, 50% lighter than glass and incredibly tough to break, making it an ideal replacement to glass if preferred. Higher grade acrylic options include full UV resistance, anti-static or anti-reflective coatings.
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Glass Options
We offer a UV resistant glass as standard on our frames, with higher grade options to choose from including ‘Gallery Glass’ which has an anti-reflective property to make your artwork sing or glazing with anti-scratch coatings.
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Glass Spacers
Also called 'Fillets', these separate the mount and artwork from the glazing in a box frame. As they're visible, colours and styles can be used to compliment and contrast your artwork.
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Splines
Up to 5 splines can be used on your frame, for 2 purposes. Either to make a stronger frame for large works (where it's often painted over), or for the style and character it adds to your frame. In the latter case, contrasting woods can be used to enhance the effect.
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Give Your Artwork Serious Impact
The timeless shape and clean visuals give your artwork added gravitas that visitors will comment on.
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Extra Large?
We specialise in oversized, meaning your box frame can be customised to any length. Frames this large can act as a centerpiece and really pull your space together.
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Protect Your Artwork
Conservation level mounting techniques are used to house your artwork safely into the frame and a variety of glazing materials with various benefits, such as UV protection and anti-reflective properties, are used to protect the artwork from environmental damage.
Get your project started
Let's get your art framed
Get a bespoke design brief for your project. Each frame is uniquely designed and manufactured in house by our expert framers.
Examples
Examples of box framing from past projects
Browse images from our previous projects, including many box frame ideas to give inspiration for your next project.
“The only museum quality framers we’ve found outside London. ”
Chris BrooksGallery Owner
Suitable For
What types of artwork can a box frame be used for?
| Acrylic | Metal & Wood Frames | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Artwork | Box | Panel | Box | Simple | Stretcher | Tray |
| 3D Object | ||||||
| Board | ||||||
| Canvas | ||||||
| Digital File | ||||||
| Mirror | ||||||
| Paper | ||||||
| Textile | ||||||
Get your project started
Let's get your art framed
Get a bespoke design brief for your project. Each frame is uniquely designed and manufactured in house by our expert framers.
Construction
How Are UK Box Frames Made?
Any item we box frame for you will be framed with conservation in mind as we do not use any destructive fixing methods when it comes to your work. This means no glue, nails, staples or anything that could damage your art.
Box frames can have the following elements:
Deep Profile
A strong wood is preferred to ensure the frame remains rock solid and keeps your work safe. Tulipwood is a good choice we regularly use for a balance of strength, budget and adaptability to finishes.
The frame will need to be deeper than the height of the work, to allow for the construction materials (glass, mountboard, subframe etc). This can be important to consider if you’re after a particular visual dynamic in the frame proportions.
Using more depth than strictly necessary is completely up to you for either small, large or deep box frames. We can advise on what suits your item best, but the decision is up to you. It is possible to build up the profile, pack out the back of the frame or fabricate a box frame in acrylic. We have recently completed several acrylic box frames for wedding dresses, which is always interesting. We have also undertaken box frames for football shirts, a series of paper bags, a set of beer pump icons, dried flowers, a school tie, resin cast baby feet, antique books, tickets, etc.
Glass Spacer
Most clients opt for a white, conservation paper wrapped glass spacer. This gives a clean, modern visual and adds space to the frame.
Glass spacers can also be hand-finished in the same range of options the main profiles. Custom finishing for the glass spacer can be very effective. The artwork can appear to blend into the frame or a sharp visual contrast can be achieved.
Mount board
A mount board is often chosen by you to compliment the artwork.
The art then sits on top of the mount board and is attached differently in many cases. Some examples of the reversible fixing methods we use are Japanese Museum Tags, stitching and custom built support structures.
There are several options available to you regarding mount board: colours, thickness, aperture, double mount, triple mount, multiple aperture etc. All of these will be fully explained to you in your initial consultation. All mounts are cut using a dedicated Swiss-made computer-aided mount cutter.
Spacing around Art
A key consideration to make is how much spacing to leave around the artwork, before the edge of the frame.
How much space to leave depends on the size of the work and how it will sit with the chosen profile. As the under-mount creates the negative space, considering the under mount’s colour and material is also important. A common size to use might be 30mm around the art.
Another point to keep in mind is the spacing of multiple objects. It’s quite common for plaques or paper comments to be included with the object. Or there may even be a selection of several objects that need to be arranged for best visual affect.
Glazing
Box frames can either be glazed with glass or acrylic (also sometimes called Perspex, Plastic or Plexiglas). They each come in a variety of options. There are 2 items to consider when it comes to glazing box frames:
UV Protection
If the art being framed is susceptible to damage from UV rays (paper artwork and textiles are particularly vulnerable) then UV protection is something you may like. Glass and acrylic range from around 50% protection right up to museum grade, 99.9% protection.
Refection Control
This is a simple upgrade that really sets off your work. It’s magic seeing it in person – you assume it’s possible to reach out and touch the art directly but it’s still fully protected. This is especially useful if there will be down lighting, or strong opposite lighting where the piece will be displayed.
Sub-Frame
With large box frames, it will likely need a sub frame to make sure it stays fully rigid and protects the artwork. This can double as an effective hanging method by using a split batten on your wall. Just let us know if you’re interested in this hanging method and we can build the frame to accommodate this.
Welded Aluminium
We can also create welded aluminium box frames. You can see the process in the video below.
Harten have made beautiful frames for me for over 20 years.
Get your project started
Let's get your art framed
Get a bespoke design brief for your project. Each frame is uniquely designed and manufactured in house by our expert framers.