DIY Wood Frame for a Canvas from Lattice Wood and Moulding

This post first appeared on Hometalk and was sponsored by Blue Ridge Tools.

Canvas art has become an easy and affordable way to display all sorts of pictures. Canvas art with a wood frame can be affordable too! A DIY wood frame for a canvas is even better. Personally, I love taking family photos and having them made into canvas prints. Since you can do this with any photo, gone are the days of buying your own art (for the most part at least). That being said, there is something about a framed picture that really “elevates” it and gives it a more professional look. Let me show you how to create a wood frame around a canvas.

The first thing you need is a regular old canvas; an already mounted one. I had mine made from Walgreens. They do a really good job! They add four simple wood pieces to mount the canvas around. This is key because I will be using those wood pieces to nail our new wood frame into.

Aren’t my babies cute, LOL. Gosh it seems like ages ago that we took this picture. It’s crazy how quick time flies. What’s that saying, “the days are long, but the years are short.” How true…

I loved the look of the canvas, but it still looked a little plain for my taste. I knew that adding a simple wood frame would really make it stand out.

You know I’m a fan of moulding anywhere, right? What’s better than adding a little moulding to a plain space? Creating simple ways to add moulding without using heavy power tools!

In this simple tutorial, I’m going to show you how to add a DIY wood frame around a canvas.

Where do we start?

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DIY wood frame materials:

• miter box
• clamps
• straight edge
• sandpaper
• construction glue
• measuring tape
• jig saw
• lattice moulding– width should be the same as your canvas
• 1″ corner moulding
• pencil
• wood filler
• paint or stain
• paint brush or staining rag
• hammer
• small nails

How to make a wood frame around a canvas from lattice moulding and corner moulding

Let me first preface this by saying I believe that the best way to make angled cuts is with a miter saw. That being said, unless you do a lot of wood working you probably don’t have a miter saw. I want to show you an alternative way to make your own DIY wood frame for a canvas.

After you gather your materials, start by adding a little glue to the moulding. Make sure to clamp or secure the moulding to the lattice wood and let it sit at least a few hours.

Before I go any further, know that you don’t have to add the moulding. You could just add the lattice wood.

You see the picture above? The lattice wood does make a nice border by itself. Making the wood cuts with both pieces of wood together does add another element of difficulty, but it’s still fairly simple.

Below is what it looked like after both pieces are glued together.

I like the way the moulding wraps around the canvas. I think it gives it that extra “finished” look.

After the pieces are glued together, lay them on the canvas and mark where the edge of the canvas is.

You can see how I’ve drawn marks where the cuts need to be made.

Sit the wood in the miter box exactly how it will sit on the canvas. This is important to get the angle cuts right.

Use a straight edge to mark the wood at a 45 degree angle. Make sure to mark alternating 45 degree angles for each side of the wood.

Next clamp the wood in the miter box.

Can you see the alternating angles?

With one hand holding the miter box, use the other hand to cut through the angled marks. It’s helpful to have two people for this, but not necessary.

Once you’ve cut two pieces of wood, make sure they fit together nicely. They won’t be perfect, but it needs to be close.

Angle cuts are tricky, so don’t get discouraged if you need to redo a piece. Trust me, it takes practice.

After they’ve all been cut, lay them on the canvas and make sure they fit.

Next comes the fun part; painting or staining.

I chose to stain the wood. This picture has a lot of light colors, so I wanted to add a little contrast with a wood stain.

I used a Minwax weathered wood stain. To my dismay, it still wasn’t dark enough, so I added a little wood tint.

Curious about wood tint or wood dye? I’ve got a blog post plus video where I shared about the difference between wood stain and wood dye.

Next grab the hammer (or a nail gun if you have one). Hammer a nail in each side of each piece of wood. I used eight nails.

Grab the wood filler and apply the wood filler to the nail holes and the corners if needed.

If you hammered the nails, you likely won’t have nail holes. That’s ok, as long as they aren’t too visible.

Wipe away the excess wood filler before it dries.

Let it dry and then use your paint or stain to touch up the wood filler.

Side note; it’s harder to match and cover up wood filler with wood stain than it is paint. If you have a lot of putty to cover up, I would suggest painting the frame and not staining it.

You ready to see my newly framed canvas?

I love how the warm wood really compliments our chippy barn door!

I hope this has been a very straight forward and easy to follow tutorial!