A driftwood picture frame is a stylish solution when you want a unique distressed frame with timeless appeal. One of the techniques you can explore when framing your pictures is to use reclaimed wood or driftwood that you have collected, but often driftwood is not available to everyone so you can try to create the look by using new wood that you can get from your local hardware. trade.
It’s not difficult to make a frame that looks like driftwood, but it does require some time and experimentation. All you need to do is visit your hardware store and get some hardwood. Sometimes you can get the wood already in a picture frame profile and other times you may need to trim or rebate it to accept the glass, backing and picture. You can then cut it out to make it into a picture frame to fit your photo or artwork.
Now the way to make your new picture frame look like it really is driftwood is to start with the raw wood and then use various materials and tools to weather the surface of the wood.
The first step is to fill any blemishes or nail holes in the frame and sand them down so you have a perfectly made frame. The point of trying to make this frame look recycled or weathered is for the surface to mimic an old weathered look. To accomplish this you can use a variety of tools including chisels, rasps, whatever jagged bits of metal you have, bunches of keys, and all sorts of things that can be used to apply different markings to the wood to give it a more natural look.
Start by poking around and making some holes and rough marks in the wood. You can scrape it off with a surform type rasp or cheese grater type scraper and it can leave it quite rough, don’t try to smooth it out. The idea here is that you’re going to expose the grain. Be careful to avoid the inside edge where the image fits because it’s quite a thin and fragile area. Just focus further back from the edge of view. Try creating kind of a lot of random holes all over the surface of the frame and then start scratching it up and use various metal objects and tools. Any kind of raw metal tool can be used to apply texture to the frame.
Keep scraping the trim, and remember that you’re trying to replicate the natural look of reclaimed wood. Now when you get to the corners you’ll need to use something a bit pointy so you can get right into those corners. A good tool for this is an awl or small gouge. You can use sharp screwdrivers and old tools that have unusual surfaces. You can use bunches of nails which work quite well, especially if you tape them down. Use your fingernails to scrape into corners and other tight areas.
After you’ve gone through the framework well, what you want to do is take a look at the entire framework and walk away from it. Take a look from a distance and see what the overall effect is. You don’t want anything too much even. The appearance should be random and the texture should look natural. Take your time because you can always add more work to it. You can go back and you can chisel off pieces, you can add more small holes and you can punch holes with nails.
After a while, you have a hairy, hairy type of wooden frame with all kinds of shavings hanging out of it. You can then burn off sections with a torch that burns off some of the wood chips. In other areas you can lift the grain by moistening it with water. The water causes the wood fibers to swell creating a different level of texture.
Sand the frame with various grades of sandpaper, and try to maintain the textures you’ve been building up during the weathering process. The sandpaper is to give the frame some areas of smoothness and add another detail to the complexity of the surface.
Once you’re happy with the overall texture you’ve created, you can add a few coats of thinned plaster or thinned white paint to give a whitewashed finish. Don’t worry if the white color picks up some of the carbon left over from the burning process, as it adds to the gray driftwood effect you’re trying to emulate.
When the paint is dry, add various colors of wax crayons or other pigmented oil pastels to sections of frame trim. Mix some of these color coats with old kitchen scrubbers, steel wool, or different grades of sandpaper.
Look at the frame from a distance and see if the finish is what you want.
Smooth and blend the tones within the frame by sanding or further scrubbing with scouring pads or steel wool.
When you are happy with the look of the frame, you can finish the surface with a light coat of a good furniture polish. For an added level of finish, you can sprinkle powdered rotten stone or pumice into the wax before it dries. Apply the wax with a clean cloth and after allowing it to dry for the appropriate amount of time you can buff the surface with a polishing cloth.
Your frame should have a natural warm finish ready to insert your image.