Make a Trunk Style Homemade Frame for a Ship Picture

Do you have a print or original painting of an old schooner ship or some other ship? Are you still trying to decide on the right frame for it? Why not make one for it?

Here is an idea for a trunk styled frame that would go well for that painting.

You will need:

One 1" x 4" board long enough for the frame's overall perimeter length

A ball and peen hammer

A round rock or anvil (something to shape metal on)

1/32" sheet metal

4 pieces 3" or 4" square

4 pieces 2 ½" wide and long enough for the lengths of each side

Gray, Black and Silver paint

A box of metal tacks that look like rivets

Metal shears

Framer's clips

Philips Screwdriver

Corrugated framer's nails or staples for a compressed air staple gun

Compressed air staple gun

Router and ¼" dovetail bit

Miter box and saw

2" wide paintbrush

Sandpaper

Tape measure

Pencil

Framing clamps

Wood Filler

Frame hook

Yes, this is going to require some serious work, but if you don't have all the tools maybe you can borrow them.

The first thing you will want to do is have one long edge of the 1" x 4" board routed so that you have a ¼" lip into it from both directions. Have this done on the edge you least like. Width wise, this should leave 3 ¼" of backspace, with the front of the board having a ½" depth to the routed edge.

If the painting is more than ¼" in thickness, then you will need to make up for it by re-routing more depth in your dovetail cut.

Measure the height and width of the painting and allow a 1/32" spacing as an opening. So, if your painting is 24" x 16" the inside measurement to the routed area needs to be 24 1/16" x 16 1/16". Make sure you are cutting the 45 degree angle away from these inside cuts. Otherwise you will have to start all over again, and possibly have to buy more wood.

Turn the four pieces of trim face down, clamp them together so that the edges are square, and hammer in the corrugated nails. For those of you who have the compressed staple gun, this is when you can use it. Also go in from the outside edge at the corners. These will not be visible, as the metal will hide them.

Unclamp the frame. Sand the entire frame well and paint it black. You can use any kind of sealer you want on the frame once the paint has dried.

Shape the long strips of sheet metal so that they will bend at a 90 degree angle leaving a ¾" lip to hide the outside edge of the frame. Make sure they are cut to the same length as the length of the sides before you start bending them. It is okay if the outside edge is rounded.

Cut the wider sections at the ends of the sheet metal strips to match the 45 degree angles in the frame. Sand or file down the edges so that you do not cut yourself. Without measuring, unless you really want to, eyeball the spacing between the metal studs as you nail them through the sheet metal into the frame.

Leave some space from each corner, as this is where your shaped corner pieces will be covering later on. Go ahead and tape off along the wood up against the edge of the metal strips. This will keep the other paint from getting on the black paint.

Measure and draw out a 13/16" edge on the four corner pieces. You only need this edge drawn on two sides that meet up with each other. Where those two edges meet, cut out that small 13/16" square. These lines are where you are going to bend the metal.

Picturing the corner of the frame on each piece where you drew the lines at, draw out your pattern. Now cut out the pattern on each piece of metal. You can now bend down the edges. Don't worry about being so precise. If you are good with metal, you may know how to get that corner hammered out instead of cutting it out.

Take a corner piece and place it on an anvil or round rock. What you are going to do is try to hammer out a slightly upward dented look to the corners at the outside edge. Try to keep the edges where the tacks will be hammered in as flat.

Go ahead and repeat this step three more times to finish up the corner pieces for your ship's frame.

Tack each corner piece in place. You may have found out by now that this is a noisy project. Hopefully, you are doing this outside or in your garage.

Paint on some gray and silver paint in streaks to make the metal appear aged. Spray or brush on some lacquer or polyurethane sealant to keep paint from flaking off the metal.

When this is dry, you can nail on the frame hook, and you are done. Well...almost.

Put your picture in and screw on the framer's clips. Turn them to lock the picture into the frame, and now you are ready to hang this wonderful project up on the wall.

Who knows, you may get a wild hair and want to add stickers as if you have traveled to far off places.