Any home décor store worth its salt will have a range of frames on display, inviting you to select the perfect one for your family portrait or piece of art. It’s certainly a convenient and immediate solution to your framing needs, but is this the best option?
If you need a frame pronto, or you’re constrained by a tight financial situation, then yes, a shop-bought frame may be better-suited to your circumstances. However, there are several valuable benefits that you get from choosing a custom frame.
Personalization
A bespoke frame allows you to exercise your individuality. Rather than selecting a run-of-the-mill frame, you can work with the framer to deign something that suits your personality as well as the décor in the room. A unique custom frame can add a splash of insight, act as a conversation-starter and make any bland photo or artwork pop.
While your personality plays a part in the frame design, so too does the character of the art that the frame surrounds. Not all art is conducive to standard, mass-produced frames, and if enclosed in one will lose its uniqueness and flair. The best frames emphasize the image as well as provide a backdrop against which that image is viewed. This may be a physical backdrop, such as the mount that framers use behind the piece, or the feelings that the image evokes. With the wrong frame, a piece of art becomes less powerful.
Range of Options
As we mentioned earlier, custom framing doesn’t provide an immediate solution, but it does provide a range of options making it an infinitely simpler solution than scouring the malls for the elusive perfect frame.
Let’s look at photographs as an example. In recent years there’s been a shift away from the standard 4×6 and 8×10 images to more unusual sizes that mass-produced frames can’t generally accommodate. A custom framer, on the other hand, can design and produce a frame that perfectly fits your image, regardless of its dimensions.
Colour is another aspect of framing that you may struggle with in the shops. Black, white and neutral frames are easy to come by, and while some stores may have other colours, these stores are the exceptions rather than the rule. Custom frames can be tailor-made to your colour specifications enabling you to get just the right effect for the space you’re displaying them in.
It’s great to have a choice of colour and size when framing your image, but what about the type of frame? A frame for your team photo is easy to source, but how best to frame that signed T-shirt from your favourite cricketer, or your collection of gemstones? Bespoke framers have a number of tricks up their sleeves, and can produce a style of frame for the most unusual item. Our custom range of frames includes box frames, floating frames and block mounts, all made up to your requirements to showcase your mementos.
Quality
When you select a bespoke frame, you’re opting for quality. We’re not saying that what you can buy in the stores is low grade, but specialised framing businesses put extra emphasis on the quality of the finished product. Talents are refined and concentrated on one craft, bespoke framing, rather than dispersed to include other things.
At Kelso Frames, we craft our products from high quality, durable materials with the attention to detail that you’d expect from a specialised service. In addition, our framers have learned their techniques over time, and that experience contributes greatly to the quality of the finished product.
Protection
Whether your artwork is an expensive gallery-bought piece or a family photo, you want to ensure that lasts for a long time. Custom frames provide a higher level of protection that their shop-bought counterparts do, and largely due to the quality of the product.
The materials used in custom frames are far superior to those used for mass-produced frames. This allows your artwork to maintain its colour and shape, even after many years on display.
In addition, custom-crafted frames are carefully pieced together to ensure that they remain durable. Where a shop-bought frame will come apart if dropped, a custom frame should remain intact and undamaged.
Long-term Value for Money
It’s true; custom frames are generally more expensive than ones bought off the shelf. However, when you have to continually replace your shop-bought frame it may be worthwhile considering the bespoke option.
Going the bespoke route does require a larger initial financial outlay, but you can be confident that you’re purchasing a quality product that perfectly suits your image, and will outlast your store-bought frames. Shelling out time and again for a replacement frame will end up costing more than if you’d purchased a custom product at the start.
The reasons we’ve given above are just some of the advantages that custom frames have over shop-bought frames. Once you consider these in the context of your requirements, you’ll view custom framing as an investment in your art, rather than a shop-bought quick solution.