How to Frame a Canvas Print or Painting

Have you ever wondered how to frame a canvas painting or print yourself?

Maybe you’ve asked the question “can you even frame a canvas?”

If so, you’ve landed on the right page!

While framing a canvas is rather different from framing a regular picture, it is easily done with basic materials you can buy online or at any hardware store.

Canvas painting

We’ve put together this simple guide on how to frame canvases to make it as easy as possible for you.

Let’s start with choosing the right frame for the job:

Step 1: Measure the Canvas

The first thing you need to know is the size of the canvas you have to work with.

Measure the depth, length and width of the canvas as accurately as you can and note down the size.

Measuring the frame

It’s important to be as accurate as you can at this stage, because being off even slightly will mean your canvas won’t fit into the frame.

Step 2: Buy Your Frame

Picture frames

Now that you know which size to aim for, you should find a craft or hardware store to purchase your frame from.

It might be a good idea to call ahead and make sure they actually offer your size before making the journey.

You’ll also need to buy some canvas clips at this point (they’ll come in handy later).

One pack of four canvas clips is enough to frame a single canvas.

Here are some things to keep in mind when selecting your frame:

  • Avoid colors or styles that are too similar to those of your art - contrast always looks better
  • Don’t get a frame that’s too fancy and decorative, or it may detract from your painting
  • Shopping online may be easier since you can jump straight to the sizes you want, and is usually cheaper
  • Most stores have the same standard selection of frame sizes. If you have an unusual size canvas, some places do offer more specialised canvas frames, unusual frame sizes or even custom built frames if necessary

Step 3: Frame Your Canvas

  1. Place your frame face down
  2. Insert your canvas gently into the back of the frame, being very careful not to damage the painting on the front
  3. Make sure your canvas is lying as evenly as possible on the inner lip of the frame
  4. Now you need to make sure your canvas is fixed tight into the frame by attaching one of the canvas clips you bought earlier to each of the four sides, pushing each one down firmly to ensure they are well stuck.

Now you can turn your frame over and admire your artwork!

If it feels loose you may need to tighten the canvas clips, but otherwise it should already fit snugly.

Step 4: Hang Your Canvas!

First, choose where you want to hang your canvas. Our guide to the proper height to hang pictures will be helpful for this.

Now, you have to decide whether you’d rather know how to frame canvas art the traditional way, or the WallX way.

You’ll find easy to follow instructions for both methods below:

The Traditional Method

Hanging a canvas with nails

First, assemble your tools. You will need:

  • A hammer
  • One standard nail
  • A wire hanger for the back of your frame if one wasn’t included (they almost always are)

Once you have these, just follow these steps:

  1. Hammer your nail into the wall. You should leave a few centimetres protruding to hang your picture from. Also, be sure to hammer the nail at a perfectly straight angle. Since you can’t upgrade the strength as easily as you could with an xHang, consider hanging your painting from a wall stud for added security.
  2. Attach your wire hanger to the back of the frame via the manufacturer’s instructions if one didn’t come already attached to your frame.
  3. Simply place the wire hanger on the frame over the nail, and carefully let go. The frame should hang from the nail.
  4. You may need some small adjustments at this stage to make sure it’s hanging straight, but otherwise you’re done!

The WallX Method

  1. Attach the xHub to your wall, using the adhesive pad for paintings of up to 1.5 lbs, or the included tacknails for paintings of up to 25 lbs. You can double up on xHubs with tacknails for added security, for example on uneven or textured walls.
  2. Remove the standoffs as shown here:

3. Attach the standoffs and wax to the frame as shown below:

4. Combined the two halves of the xHang device like so:

….and hang your painting!

It really is as simple as that.

Hopefully this guide has shown you just how revolutionary xHang really is, and how it allows you to hang pictures more easily than ever.

More importantly, this page is all you need to learn how to frame a painting on canvas, regardless of what picture hanging hardware you have available.

Now you know how to frame a canvas picture, if you need more information on how to use an xHang, simply check out our installation page.

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