When to frame and when not to: advice from galleries and artists

Frame anything on paper that you plan to hang or handle, and frame it properly with acid-free materials behind glazing; leave canvases, freshly bought prints you might resell, and works you’re still deciding about unframed until you’re sure. That is the short version of advice you’ll hear again and again from galleries and the artists they represent. Framing is protection first and decoration second, and the two don’t always point the same way.

When should you definitely frame a work?

Frame it when the work is fragile, when you’ll touch it, and when light or damp could reach it. Works on paper are the obvious case. Watercolours, drawings, etchings and screenprints are vulnerable to dust, fingerprints, humidity and ultraviolet light, and glazing is the simplest barrier against all four. The same logic applies to photographs and anything with a delicate surface that smudges or scuffs. If a piece is going on a wall in a kitchen, hallway or bathroom where it meets steam, cooking residue or knocks, framing stops being optional.

The other clear case is value you want to keep. A signed, numbered edition or an original drawing deserves a mount that holds it away from the glass and board that won’t yellow and burn the paper over time. Good framing here is an insurance policy, not an indulgence. Specialist framers such as Art of Framing and Artisan Framing Ltd work with conservation materials precisely because the cheap alternatives cause slow, invisible harm.

When is it better to leave a work unframed?

Leave it unframed when the work is built to stand alone, or when framing would commit you too early. Stretched canvases are the headline example. Most contemporary painters intend their canvases to hang as raw objects, with the painted or unpainted edges part of the piece. Box a canvas behind glass and you often fight the artist’s intention and trap moisture against the surface. If you want a finished look, a tray frame that floats the canvas with a small gap reads as a frame without smothering the work.

Hold off, too, when you’ve just bought something and aren’t certain where it will live. Framing locks in a size, a mount colour and a glazing choice that are expensive to change. Many collectors keep new prints flat in acid-free tissue and a folder until they’ve decided on a wall. There is no harm in waiting, and it spares you reframing later.

Framing is protection first and decoration second, and the two don’t always point the same way.

What about works you might sell on?

If resale is a real possibility, keep framing reversible and keep the original presentation intact. Buyers and auction houses care about condition, and an aggressive frame job can quietly lower what a work is worth. Never let a framer dry-mount, trim the margins, or tape the sheet down with ordinary tape, all of which are common shortcuts that cause permanent damage. Ask explicitly for hinges using acid-free tape, float mounting that shows the paper’s edges, and materials that can be removed without a trace. Deckled edges, plate marks and the artist’s signature are part of the object’s story, so a good framer keeps them visible rather than hiding them under a window mount.

How do you choose glazing and mounts?

Choose glazing for the light the work will face and mounts for the materials touching the paper. Standard glass is fine in a dim corner, but a piece opposite a window benefits from UV-filtering glass or acrylic, which slows fading without the green tint of old glass. Acrylic is lighter and shatter-resistant, which matters for large works or a child’s room, though it scratches more easily. For mounts, the words to listen for are acid-free, conservation and museum board. Anything that touches the artwork should be inert, because ordinary cardboard releases acids that brown the paper at the edges within a few years.

Is professional framing always worth it?

For anything valuable, oddly sized or irreplaceable, yes; for a cheap open-edition poster you’ll replace in a year, a ready-made frame is perfectly sensible. The honest answer is that framing is a spectrum, not a rule. A quick chat with the gallery that sold you the work usually settles it, since they know how the artist likes their pieces presented and can often recommend a local framer. Spaces like Bankside Gallery, which shows printmakers and watercolourists, deal with these questions daily and won’t think less of you for asking.

The pattern underneath all of this is simple. Frame to protect when a work is fragile or precious, leave it unframed when the artist intended that or when you’re not yet sure, and whatever you do, make the choice reversible so nothing you decide today closes off a better decision tomorrow.