However, the perception that custom framing is too pricey is also a symptom of a different reality: Millennial consumers — long past their poster-hanging days — have less money than previous generations.
Young adults are decorating homes and apartments with more budget-friendly art. To demystify the process of framing, I spoke with custom framers — both big box chains and mom-and-pop shops — and found that the seemingly astronomical prices have a bit to do with the price of labor and expertise a local framer can offer, but more than anything, it has to do with options.
The fewer options a business offers, the more able they are to order in bulk, therefore cutting down costs. Klostermeyer has owned Design Frames, a local custom frame shop in Falls Church, Virginia, for 50 years. Klostermeyer offers 2, different frames at his shop, along with hundreds of mats and specialty fabric matting options. He also gets custom moldings from eight different vendors. Wendee Mai of Framing in Brooklyn says her shop offers between 1, and 1, frames, hundreds of mats, and she uses molding from four or five different vendors.
The shop also offers different kinds of glazing, both glass and acrylic, and the cost of those depends on how much UV protection a customer wants. Although this is less than many local framers, it is still a vast, expensive-to-maintain selection, which is perhaps why they are losing out to online framing services like Art.
Last year, they closed 94 Aaron Brothers standalone stores. At Framebridge, a service that lets you mail in pieces to be framed for a fixed price, customers can choose from fewer than 60 frames and 20 different mat colors.
Once you choose a color, one of their in-house framers will choose the hue that looks best with your piece. At Framebridge, all fixed pricing includes matting and shipping. Essentially, the fewer options a company offers, the lower they can make their prices. In other words, if a company orders a product in high volume, it is often able to get said product at a discounted rate. Klostermeyer adds that the cost of labor has gone up over the years, which has impacted operating costs at mom-and-pop framing shops, raising frame prices.
Custom framers, both local and chains, offer a wide variety of materials and in-person expertise which result in one-of-a-kind frames, so why are online framing services able to disrupt the market so significantly? According to a recent study , millennials have lower earnings, fewer assets, and less wealth than baby boomers or Gen Xers had in their 20s and 30s.
Millennials are also buying houses later than previous generations. Another cost-saving material is where they use plastic instead of glass for the glazing and corrugated mat board backing with high acidity. The effect of this is that cheap or substandard materials can damage your framed items leading to costly repairs or replacements.
By investing in natural timbers that are both long-lasting and resilient to weathering, your artwork is preserved in the best possible condition without losing on its aesthetic appeal. A framer can also offer a wider range of protective materials including UV glazing and acid-free mats that will not damage your precious item. Find out more about what goes into high-quality framing here. The machinery used in production is an important differentiator between professional and standard framing.
Top-quality craftsmanship can only be achieved by using the best technology to design, cut and join each part of the frame together. For example, a specialised guillotine ensures the wooden corners of a frame are cut with precision to a degree angle ensuring a perfect corner without damaging the surface. Similarly, a computerised mat board cutter guarantees the mat board is perfectly sized with error-free cuts to create a barrier between the glass and artwork.
All Frame Today stores are fitted on-site with computerised, state-of-the-art European cutters. This equipment lets us produce custom cuts that fit custom sized orders. Our machinery also allows for Same Day Framing where we can turn around projects in a short amount of time, comparable to other framers typical weeks. Learn more about our framing technology here. Most also offer different types of glass, from clear to ultra-violet protective, and a variety of museum-grade, acid-free archival mat materials to preserve artwork from sun damage, dust and moisture.
Full-service custom framing shops offer myriad frame types, including shadow boxes and floater frames, to create different finished looks. In addition to framing paintings and photographs, Many professionals can create custom mats and frames for memorabilia such as sports jerseys, needlework projects, mirrors and military collectibles. The cost for custom framing varies greatly, depending on the materials. Once a piece of artwork is professionally framed, it should be hung with equal care. A professional art installer, such as Frametown USA in Austin, Texas, can design an art installation to fit a specific home.
Pro installers can hang artwork without damaging walls, and most should know how to properly hang even the heaviest artwork. Millions of people ask Thumbtack for help with their projects every year. We track the estimates they get from local professionals, then we share those prices with you. Browse profiles, see prices and use filters to find pros who match your project. Join as a pro. See all. Events and more. Other Info. Cancel Search.
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Art installations Once a piece of artwork is professionally framed, it should be hung with equal care. How do we know these prices?
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