babyhercules's Profile

I have a DIY framing story I'd like to share in hopes that others will take framing on themselves!

After my dad died, in going through his things, I discovered an old table top piece which he originally made as an extender for our dining room table. I think it must have been practice for when he made it "for real" out of nice wood. Anyway, he ended up using it in his workshop to paint/stain windows, furniture, etc on, sort of a temporary work table that he'd set on sawhorses outside or in the garage. The result of years and years of painting and staining was a beautiful work of art (according to me, at least!) created by my not artistic (but very skilled in carpentry) dad. Being the weird "artist" of the family, I immediately cherished this table top and knew I wanted to hang it up as art in my house. The problem was, it was about 4 or 5 ft square, slightly uneven, and 5-6" deep with a frame underneath, to fit it into the table. I took it to a frame shop, and they said it would be thousands of dollars to just put a simple wood frame around the side--not even glass or anything. I was shocked. I asked if they could mount D rings properly on the back, so I could just hang it on it's own with no frame, and they said they could. It was going to be under $20. My next stop was Home Depot, where I bought the most simple pine (I think?) boards, and asked them to cut them to the length of my new art. I picked up the mounted table top, placed the boards around the edges, and nailed them in place. Voila. It cost under $40 in all. I want to encourage more people to try this!

You can see a picture of it here, although it's from across the room:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/babyhercules/6264140676/