Rustic Picture Frame

[jgfore]

I am looking to make a rustic picture frame to place a family picture in for my parents. It will be about 24"x36". I do not want it to be TOO rustic, as in give you splinters, but it needs to look very country. The picture will be taken out in the pasture in front of a creek and old tractor. IF anyone has any good ideas of what types of wood and the types of finishes to use, I would love to hear them. ALSO, let me know what you think about it being a rough or smooht finish.

Thanks Jeff

[Rapid Roger]

I have made old rustic looking frames out of old rustic wood. Recycled from a delolished house, pallet wood. stuff that has been laying in an alley for a few years, what ever!

When I find some old barn wood or any weathered boards, (Who cares what kind of wood it is?) I cut it up into a frame with 45 mitered corners and spline it and rout a groove in the back for the picture and glue it up.

I do not finish them, I use it knotholes, splits and all, and find a way to hang it on the wall. The only thing that makes me mad is if any of the saw cuts show that shows the "clean" wood.

Dont worry about splinters, anyone moving it should be careful. As you can tell, the rougher, older, and more beat-up it is the better I like it.

Rog

[iSawitFirst]

Sandblasted wood gives a worn look. If that's not an option you could beat it with a chain.

Seriously.

[Guest Trace]

Jeff, I'll try to get a few good pictures of some of the oil well shed wood I have stockpiled. I may be ok for what you want to do. I can cut it oversize and send it to you, if you wish.

[Aggie83]

See if you can get some cedar fence picket at the home center. Plane one face of each until they are fairly uniform in thickhess and then put them out in the weather (sun and rain) to weather. The should turn a nice silver-ish color.

Note: if you weathered then first and then plane them, you run the risk messing up the weathered faces.

[Beechwood Chip]

Sandblasted wood gives a worn look. If that's not an option you could beat it with a chain.

Beating it with a chain may work well for harder woods, but when I was a kid my father had scrounged some 1x6 boards of something soft, maybe pine or poplar, and you could see distinct imprints of the individual links of a chain in them. It looked really dumb. My father explained that someone had tried to "distress" the wood to make it look older by beating it with a chain.

[iSawitFirst]

Beating it with a chain may work well for harder woods, but when I was a kid my father had scrounged some 1x6 boards of something soft, maybe pine or poplar, and you could see distinct imprints of the individual links of a chain in them. It looked really dumb. My father explained that someone had tried to "distress" the wood to make it look older by beating it with a chain.

Yea, it looks really hokey. I was being sarcastic. The whole fake "distressed" thing really gums up my digestive tract. Why not make an heirloom and let passing it along to multiple generations give it it's character? It makes the piece special, genuine, and gives it a unique story. Better than trying to pass it off to your children and them not wanting "the table Dad must not have thought much of 'cause he beat it with a hammer."

[dasoccer]

Sorry to resurrect an older thread, but this is my specialty.

I worked for a little while for mybarnwoodframes (their rustic frames available at http://mybarnwoodframes.com/rustic-frames) - you could probably make one for much cheaper than they have available, and I think one of the keys is to find wood that has already been weathered to give it the rustic look. Usually finding an old fence that's not needed anymore works great, or sometimes there are people with old barns who are looking to get rid of some of the wood you can pick up for cheap. Check out http://www.squidoo.com/how-rustic-picture-frames-are-made for some good advice.