Simple wooden picture frames...

As you may (or may not) know Game of Thrones has finished for another year,and while I'm waiting for the next series I decided to make a frame for my map of Westeros,which I got in the box set of books that my wife bought me for christmas (yes I've read the books as well) it's not hard to do,and I'm pleased with the end result.


Here's it is,in it's new place in the front room -

Winter is coming.

It was easy to make,although I did use a router,but there are other ways of doing this,the wood cost no more than about £2 the most expensive part of this was the clip frame I bought,which cost £3.50 I don't know how much a piece of glass would have cost,but the clip frame was cheap enough, I added some squares of wood to each corner with a Dire wolf burned into them for a bit of added interest.

I didn't take pictures while I was making this,but to give you a rough idea of how it's done I made a frame for a smaller clip frame,and there's no reason why you can't make picture frames for small photo's in the same way,and it's not just frames for pictures either.

Here's a clip frame - 

Nothing special,just a clip frame.

To make the wooden frame all I've done is to get some tile batten and using a router I've made a channel down the middle of the wood about 5mm in depth and wide enough to fit the glass and the board backing of the clip frame into.

Like so - 

A bit tricky to do,but a few clamps help.

There are a couple of ways you can go from here,you can have mitred corners (angled) or you can just butt the bits of wood up against each other.

If you go for mitred corners then what I did was mark the back of the clip frame,to help get the wooden parts of the frame in the right place,otherwise the mitres will have gaps in them.

Like so - 

It helps to have a guide.

You can see that I've marked out each corner at 45 degrees,and I've also marked down 5mm (ish) along each side and from these marks I got the measurements for the bits of wood I needed to cut.

To cut the bits of wood I used a mitre saw,these are great for small jobs like this,they can cut a variety of angles and are easy to use,and cheap to buy.

My mitre saw - 

It's served me well,could do with a new blade.

Here's one piece cut,you can see it almost lines up with my marks -

Close enough.

To fix the pieces together you can use screws,or glue and clamps,either way works,but if you use screws you'll be able to change the picture,if however you go for glue then that's it you won't be able to get things apart without damaging things,as I'm not bothered about changing the picture I went for glue on the map frame.

Screwing together - 

It's easy to fill the holes,a bit of dowel will do.

Gluing together with clamps -

Don't worry I haven't glued this one together without a picture.

Using clamps like these can be a bit tricky when it comes to getting things lined up,you can buy a special frame clamp that will make life easier or you can make one,there are various how to's online.

Here's the back of the clip frame complete with the wooden framing - 

You get the idea?

If you don't have a router there is a little cheat, find some tongue and groove,you should be able to use the groove side to fit the clip frame into,you'll obviously need to cut the wood to size,but it does work.

Here's the glass from a clip frame in a piece of match board - 

Perfect fit.

In fact this is how I made the front of my wife's wedding anniversary present - 

Joins could have been neater.

If you don't fancy trying mitred corners you can just butt the bits of wood up against each other,in some cases this maybe more appealing,but I guess it depends on your tastes.

Easy way of doing things - 

More of a rustic feel,I may do this on the next one I make.

It's not just picture frames you can use this for,I made a cupboard for our keys in a similar way,only instead of glass I used a piece of thin plywood that I cut a heart shape into,and I also made a box for my son to keep some of his fossils in,kind of like a display case,I used the glass from another clip frame for this as well,I think they turned out well and they are cheap and easy to make.

The key cupboard - 

I like it,so does my wife,everyone’s a winner

The fossil display case - 

Keeps the fossils safe and shows them off.

Thanks for reading.