If you were to come over my place for lunch, (I'm making corn and bean salsa dip!), you'd see frameless art leaning against the walls and stacks of empty frames in my office. Everywhere. While the apartment creeps towards being almost, kinda, mostly done (except for a couple major projects spinning in my head, of course), the prints and photographs meant for the walls have sat on the floor looking rather abandoned. I'm quite decisive in most areas of my life, but it seems that I'm the most non-committal person when it comes to hanging wall art. And I've fallen out of love with some of our frames. Too deep. Too cheap looking (the decorating trick of spray painting your frames all one color really looks best on wood frames — not the cheapie metal frames you find at Bed Bath & Beyond type places.) And I have white frames that look to have yellowed over time (how does that even happen?!). I've been feeling a bit like I need one of those HGTV personalities to come over and shake me into making a plan already.
I've been completely stuck on these two companies through weeks of my wall art paralysis: Plywerk and ReFrame. I keep circling back to their sites, and I've fallen for their wooden glassless frames. Plywerk's blank panels are made from sustainably harvested wood (with a keyhole in back), and you can order yours with a pre-applied pH neutral adhesive. The photo above makes me want to do an entire wall of Plywerk, but instead I want to mix in Plywerk panels with the frames that I already own. You can even order custom sizes with Plywerk.
I also love the concept of ReFrame, that I discovered via A Cup of Jo. I have two prints that would be a perfect fit for this simple concept. I wish we had some cool band poster, like one from Poster Cabaret, to put inside one of these frames. (But first, I need to frame the art I do have!)
Both Plywerk and ReFrame are glassless frames. So yes, a spot in the bathroom or next to your grease-spattering stove would be a very bad idea. And you wouldn't want to hang grandma's antique print inside a glassless frame, either. But I love how both are simple solutions if you're looking to get your art up on the walls in a stylish way and don't have $300 to lay down for each framed print. Affordable art is everywhere, so it's nice to see an affordable framing option to pair up with your $25 print. I'm relieved to be on my way to a solution, as my home office has begun to look like the land of frame misfits. And I'm most excited to enjoy seeing art on my walls, sometime soon.
