A question of framing

April 8, 2024 1:43 PM

So I have this poster, which is 18x36 and (as you can sort of tell from the picture in the listing) has a holographic kind of overlay on it. I was going to get a plain black frame but now I'm wondering: is there a more interesting frame choice I could go with? My apartment has a lot of varied artwork and frames so there's no pressure to make it "match" anything particularly. Just wondering about interesting ways to set off this image. Thoughts and recs welcome!
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese to Home & Garden (7 answers total)

It might be too "matchy" but I would use the yellow from the dresses. Or just plain black. I don't think you'd want the frame to be too busy since the poster already kind of is.
posted by dawkins_7 at 4:04 PM on April 8, 2024

I'd be really tempted to take it to a good local framer with a budget and instructions to surprise me. Could be pretty glorious.
posted by teremala at 4:32 PM on April 8, 2024 [2 favorites]

I'm a fan of plain black as it tends to just fade away and let the art really shine.
posted by BlahLaLa at 7:08 PM on April 8, 2024

If the poster itself is not valuable, I like the look of dry mounting for art like this. I got a favorite concert poster dry mounted onto some kind of particle board, and then they attached a hanging feature on the back that also makes it so the whole thing is set off the wall by about an inch. So there is no frame around it, just a very clean style that I really like – like the cool adult version of hanging a poster on the wall. BUT it does permanently "destroy" the poster/art itself, so should only be used if that's not an issue.
posted by Molasses808 at 8:32 PM on April 8, 2024

take it to the frame shop and the staff will happily collab with you on it! they have a zillion samples of framing & matting.

because the aspect ratio is odd, i think echoing that long rectangle w professional framing is gonna be the thing that really makes it sing and i promise the pros will have some great ideas. maybe bring with you a pic of the wall it might hang on/the furniture it lives next to
posted by wowenthusiast at 9:11 PM on April 8, 2024 [1 favorite]

Because the women in the picture have a very “classical art” look, with the flowing dresses and cherub-like poses, you could go big and do a gilt frame with fancy scrollwork. Try it at a frame shop and see. Could be terrible, could be amazing.
posted by caviar2d2 at 5:08 AM on April 9, 2024

Response by poster: (The poster is itself rather valuable, on eBay they are going for ~$400-500 apiece)
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:30 AM on April 9, 2024