Framing Services

Design Process
At Thomson’s we offer framing solutions from the simple to complex. With over 75 years of experience we will guide you through the framing design process, helping you select the best materials to enhance your artwork and décor. We will help you create a finished product that suits both your budget and stylistic needs. Once completed your frame will be ready to hang and will be stylistically preserved for years to come!

Extensive Selection
We showcase and house an abundance of custom frame moldings in house! With over 3,000 frames and mat choices, we can create the perfect frame design that fits you. Our style ranges from contemporary to traditional and we carry well-known distributors such as Larson-Juhl, Omega, and Décor. Along with our extensive collection of mats from top of the line manufactures such as Bainbridge and Crescent, all which are utilized to complete your framing masterpiece.

Quality Craftsmanship
We carefully follow proper preservation practices to ensure that your work can be displayed and enjoyed for years to come. Our in house staff has years of hands on framing and design experience. Utilizing top of the line materials such as acid-free mats and UV-protective glass we will insure that your work is preserved and protected while being displayed. We take time to explain the use of these materials to ensure that every little detail is executed just right.

The Framing Process

Upon deciding on whether or not you would like to frame your artwork the first thing you should always consider is both the monetary value and/or sentimental value of your piece. This should then dictate your budget. For example original artwork with a high price tag or a photograph passed down from several family generations; will call for a little more preservation with a nicer frame, museum glass and acid-free backing. Whereas poster prints purchased online or copied photographs can be simply and cost effectively put in a ready-made frames. In both cases we can fully assist you in your frame selection.

If you do choose to custom frame your work there are several steps to fully complete your framing process. First is deciding whether or not your piece needs to be mounted. Mounting is a simple aesthetic process in which your work is mounted to foam board. This allows for the work to remain permanently flat once in the frame so it does not buckle or warp. Mounting is highly recommended for pieces that are not original or do not have any sentimental value. For those works you want them to remain unmounted so that you can safely remove them from the frame if they ever need to be.

The next step is choosing a mat for your work. Using a mat is almost always recommended for keeping your pieces off of the glass once it is in a frame. The only instance where a mat is not recommended is when the work is on canvas. In this situation it is best to let the artwork “breath” so glass is not applied when framing. We have a large selection of mats in house ranging from different colors, textures and preservation qualities. You can hand pick your own mats or we can help you choose the mat that best fits your piece. For higher preservation qualities alpha-mats are highly recommended because they are acid-free and help preserve the quality of the work much better than the standard paper-mats. The color and size of the mat also help determine the overall look and framed size of your piece. Which moves us into framing.

There are two different ways you can go about framing your piece, one way is creating a custom frame and the other is using a ready-made one. Ready-made frames are basically pre-built frames that usually come in standard sizes for framing all sorts of work. We have a selection of in house frames that range from different color wood and metal finishes in which to choose from or you can bring in your own and we can work with the frame as is. In most cases when using a ready-made frame you are just going to need a mat and a possible change of glass, in addition we can rewire the frame so that it is more convenient to hang.
If you do decide to custom frame your piece, we have over 3,000 moldings to choose from ranging from gold wood frames to white gloss frames to a standard black frame. The custom frames range in different sizes from the depth of the frame (for framing deep edge canvas pieces) to the width of it (to help assist framing larger works). Just like the matting process we can help assist you in hand picking a frame that best fits your piece as well as suggest one that fits your budget.

One of the last and highly important steps is choosing the best glass or glazing type to complete your piece. Your frame may contain a pane of picture framing glass or an acrylic glass substitute such as acrylite or plexiglas to protect the picture. In some instances where the art in the frame is dispensable or durable, no protection may be necessary but it is not always recommended. Glass is common over watercolors and other artwork on paper, but rare over oil and acrylic paintings (exceptions are made for highly valuable pieces e.g. framed museum pieces). Picture framing glass may be treated with anti-reflective coatings to make the glass virtually invisible under certain lighting conditions. When a picture frame is expected to be exposed to direct sunlight, or harsh lighting conditions such as fluorescent lights, UV filtering may be added to slow down the photocatalytic degradation of organic materials behind picture framing glass.

     Finally once the framing process is complete we secure the frame either by stapling or using glazier points to ensure that the work is safely snug and will not move in the frame. Then we add a paper backing if appropriate to ensure that dust or particles do not enter behind the frame. Finally we add the hanging wire along with appropriate hanging tools then wrap the final product in brown paper as it awaits to be picked up!