With the addition of some new gallery picture frames to our website, we thought we should review some of the key things you should know when choosing a gallery frame.

The first thing you should consider is the photo or artwork you want to frame. Is the photo or artwork old and irreplaceable? Can it be easily replaced? The reason you need to ask yourself these questions is to decide if you want to protect your photos or artwork with archival products.  Archival products help protect your photos and artwork from degrading because they’re made from materials that are acid free.  You can minimize this damage by using archival mats or other forms of conservation by using metal picture frames, UV glass and archival mats and backing.  It all depends upon the importance of the item you’re framing. For most people, it’s not necessary to have their photos protected. However, if you do need to protect your artwork or photo, the most economical choice is to use metal picture frames with an archival mat.

So the next thing to consider is the style of frame you want.  Wood frames can give the photo a more casual and warm look and offer a larger selection of frame styles and colors.  Here are just a few examples of wood frames that can add a sense of warmth to your photo. The first one is a Dennis Daniels Dark Walnut Picture Frame that has a nice rich brown color.  The second frame, is a simple natural wood picture frame with white mat and a 1/2″ wood molding.  This thin wood molding complements almost any photo and is available with or without a mat in various sizes and colors.  The third wood gallery frame is a wide wood step molding that adds some extra dimension to this frame. It’s available in four other colors and comes in a wide selection of sizes.

Metal frames, on the other hand, look more modern and contemporary and often come in fewer styles and colors than wood.  One of the advantages of metal frames, is that you can have a very narrow frame molding so all you notice is the photo or artwork. Metal photo frames are also a lot less expensive than wood in larger sizes so they make great gallery frames.

If you want to do a comparison between wood and metal gallery frames here is a black wood frame (in the picture on the left) and a black metal frame (on the right). The frame molding on the wood frame is much wider and has a more dominant look compared to the metal frame on the right. With the metal frame, it just provides a black highlight around the photo but doesn’t distract from the picture. Both have a nice look but it just depends upon the look you want for your gallery frame.

The last thing to consider is whether you want to use a mat. Using a mat is highly dependent upon your personal preference, but, in my opinion,  almost every gallery style photo or piece of artwork is better displayed in a mat.  A mat adds depth to your image and helps to draw the eye towards the photo.  Here is just one example of the difference between using a mat and not using one.  As you can see, there is a very different look when you compare the frame with a mat vs the frame without a mat. That’s why professional photographers and artists commonly use mats because it beautifully sets off the image. Now, I’m not trying to convince you to use a mat but if you do have an important photo or piece of artwork, a mat makes a big difference.

Despite how nice mats look in gallery frames,  people often don’t use mats because they can be difficult to find in the size you want. Most people think that if they want a mat they have to use a custom framer but that’s not true if you need a standard photo size. We offer a variety of gallery frames with mats like our Fineline Metal Picture Frames that come in both standard and custom photo sizes and our Modern Matted Wood Picture Frames that come in 5 different colors and a variety of sizes.  Or, if you would like to see our entire selection of gallery picture frames visit our website or give us a call with your questions at 1-800-780-0699.