An oil painting leaves the studio rolled in a tube — unstretched, unframed, paint dry. Within an hour of unrolling it, two questions arrive in a fixed order: how do I get this onto a wall, and how high does it go? The order matters more than people expect. Finishing a canvas and hanging it are two separate purchases, and doing them in the wrong sequence is how a frame gets paid for twice.
An oil does not need a frame the way a print does
A print, on paper or on canvas, is a fragile surface: it needs glazing and a rigid surround to survive handling, light and time. An oil painting on canvas is already a finished, self-supporting object — paint over ground over canvas, stretched taut, varnished. Nothing on the surface needs protecting, and no frame is holding a pane of glass in place.
That changes what you are buying. You are not buying protection. You are buying proportion: a border that decides how large the painting reads on the wall and how it sits against the room. That is a design decision, and it is worth making slowly rather than at a framer’s counter with a queue behind you.
There are two genuine exceptions — very new, still-curing paint, and a canvas destined for somewhere genuinely damp. Both are worth a conversation before you spend anything.
Three ways to finish a canvas, and what each costs
In practice there are three finishes, and their prices are not close to each other. The figures below are typical for a local independent framer in the US or UK in 2026, for a canvas between 16 × 20 in and 24 × 36 in — the range most commissions land in.
| Finish | Typical cost (framing only) | What it looks like | Choose it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gallery wrap, image carried round the sides | $0–$60 (stretching only) | Contemporary; the canvas sits flush to the wall with no border | Modern rooms, a composition with quiet edges, a wide wall |
| Thin float frame, ⅚–¾ in face | $90–$220 | The painting appears to float 1/8–1/4 in inside the frame | Almost any room — the safe default |
| Traditional moulding, 2–3 in face | $250–$650 | Heavier, period or gallery look, often gilt | Period interiors and large canvases, 30 × 40 in and up |
Stretching onto stretcher bars sits underneath all three and is quoted separately: usually $35–$75 for a 16 × 20 in and $70–$140 for a 24 × 36 in. It is quick work for a framer, and it is the one step we deliberately leave to them — a canvas stretched before shipping crosses the world in a wooden crate at several times the freight cost, and it is far more likely to arrive damaged. Shipping rolled is also the reason worldwide shipping costs you nothing.
Never glaze an oil
If a framer reaches for glass out of habit, ask why. Oil paint needs to breathe; a sealed pane traps moisture against the surface, and the usual result a few years later is a bloom or a mouldy ground rather than a protected painting. Glazing belongs on paper. The only situation worth reconsidering is a corridor where people will physically touch the canvas — and even there, hanging it somewhere else is usually the better answer.
What your framer does need is the exact finished size, which we send with the certificate, and one instruction: the image must sit inside the face of the frame. A freshly rolled canvas carries 1.5–2 in of unpainted margin on every edge, and that margin exists to be wrapped, not displayed.
How high? The 57-inch line
Public galleries hang to a museum standard worth stealing for a house: the centre of the painting sits 57 to 60 inches above the floor, roughly standing eye level for an average adult. Most homes hang art six to ten inches too high, almost always because it was measured against the ceiling instead of the floor.
- Above furniture the rule changes. The bottom edge should clear the sofa back, console or headboard by 6 to 10 inches. Twenty inches of empty wall above a low sofa reads as a mistake, not as air.
- On a staircase, ignore the floor. Measure 57 to 60 inches up from the tread directly beneath the painting, so the line rises with the steps.
- In a low room, drop the centre line by roughly an inch per foot of ceiling under eight feet.
- If it looks too small once it is up, height is rarely the real problem — scale is. Buy a slightly larger canvas rather than nudging this one upward.
Scale: the two-thirds rule in real sizes
Art should occupy roughly two-thirds to three-quarters of the width of the furniture beneath it. A 78-inch sofa wants 48 to 58 inches of art across it — one large canvas, or a pair hung 2 to 3 inches apart.
Worked through with sizes we actually paint: a 16 × 20 in canvas ($389 with one subject) is comfortable on its own above a 60-inch console or a narrow bed. A single 20 × 24 in ($549) reads as a deliberate statement over a 66-inch sofa. A 24 × 36 in ($789) will hold a nine-foot wall by itself or anchor a pair of armchairs. Past 30 × 40 in ($1,090) you are decorating the room rather than the wall, and the frame arithmetic changes with it: a 3-inch moulding adds 6 inches of width before you have done anything else.
If the wall is bare — nothing underneath the painting at all — the anchor becomes the wall itself. That arithmetic is set out in our wall-art sizing guide.
Hardware: what actually holds the weight
A stretched canvas is lighter than it looks, but it is not weightless. Rough figures after stretching: a 16 × 20 in weighs 3–4 lb, a 24 × 36 in 8–11 lb, a 30 × 40 in 12–16 lb. A wide moulded frame adds 3–6 lb on top of that.
- Two D-rings screwed into the left and right stretcher bars about a quarter of the way down from the top, joined by braided picture wire hung in a shallow V. Wire pulled tight and flat is a fair-weather arrangement that gives up in dry air.
- A hook into a stud or a proper toggle bolt carries up to about 20 lb on its own. A plastic drywall plug alone is not enough past roughly 15 lb, and when it fails it fails without warning.
- Large canvases want two hooks set 2 to 3 inches apart so the painting cannot rock, or a French cleat ($15–$30), which spreads the load across the whole top edge and makes levelling trivial.
- Museum putty under the two bottom corners costs almost nothing and stops the canvas tilting every time a door closes.
- Never fix anything through the canvas face or the painted edge. Screw eyes go into the back of the stretcher bar or into the frame — never into the picture.
Light, heat and the two rooms to avoid
What damages a painting is not dust. It is light and heat. Direct sunlight fades an original faster than anything else you can do to it; indirect daylight from a north-facing window is the ideal. A wall that takes two or three hours of direct sun deserves a sheer curtain or a different wall.
- Keep spotlights at least 24 inches from the surface, and use modern cool LEDs. The old halogens were the problem — they cook the varnish.
- Above a working fireplace is a no. Heat, soot and winter moisture do more damage in five years than dust manages in fifty.
- Bathrooms, busy kitchens and unheated porches belong to the same story. Humidity swings move the canvas with the wooden stretcher bar.
The long version — humidity ranges, dusting technique, and what never to put on a canvas — is in our oil painting care guide.
The order of operations that saves money
- Stretch first, frame later. Live with the bare canvas for a week. It will tell you honestly whether the room wants a frame at all, and plenty of rooms do not.
- Choose the frame for the room, not for the painting. Take your framer a photograph of the wall, the sofa fabric and the floor. A frame that matches the room reads as considered; a frame matched only to the colours inside the canvas usually fights them.
- Decide the hanging height before ordering a wide frame. Every inch of moulding face is two inches of extra width, and that changes the two-thirds sum on a narrow wall.
- If it is a gift, frame it near the recipient. Glass and wood are precisely what you do not want crossing an ocean, and the present is better when they choose the frame themselves.
The two-minute checklist
- Let the rolled canvas lie flat for a day before it goes to the framer.
- Confirm the finished size from the certificate we sent.
- Centre line 57–60 in; bottom edge 6–10 in above furniture.
- Two-thirds of the furniture width; 2–3 in between paired pieces.
- D-rings and wire, hooked into a stud or toggle; a cleat at 30 × 40 in and up.
- Out of direct sun, away from the fireplace, out of the bathroom.
- No glass over an oil painting, ever.
If you are still choosing a size, start with the sizing guide above. If you would like the painting itself priced before you think about a frame, the custom portraits page lists every size and price, finished originals live in the original paintings collection, and the quote page takes five fields and answers within 24 hours.