How Much Does Picture Framing Cost?

Framing prices look arbitrary until you know what you're paying for. Here's an honest breakdown: what drives the cost, what a frame should cost, and where the money goes when it goes somewhere else.

What picture framing costs

Two routes, two prices.

A ready-made frame is made in volume to a standard size. That's why it's the cheapest option — you're buying a manufactured product off a shelf. Our ready-made frames start in the low tens of pounds; a 1000-piece puzzle frame is £44.99, a football shirt display frame £100.

Made-to-measure framing is cut to your dimensions. Our custom framing starts at £26, and the final price moves with size, moulding and whether you add a mount. A standard mount runs £4–£17 depending on size; a premium mount board £15–£43.

Why framing costs what it does

Four things drive the price, and only one of them is the frame.

Size. Cost scales with the perimeter of moulding and the area of glazing and backing. Doubling the dimensions of a print does much more than double the material.

The moulding. A slim aluminium profile and a hand-finished hardwood one differ in cost by multiples. This is the single biggest lever you control.

The mount. Optional, but it changes the look more than almost anything else per pound spent, and it keeps artwork off the glass.

Labour. Someone cuts the moulding to length, joins the corners, cuts the glazing, cuts the mount aperture, and assembles it. On a one-off, that labour is not shared with anyone.

Why a high-street framer charges more

Because a bricks-and-mortar framer is doing something genuinely more expensive, and it's worth being honest about it.

They run a shop with rent and staff. They cut a single frame at a time, by hand, with a person standing at a bench for it. They hold stock of hundreds of mouldings so you can see them in person. They'll frame an unusual object, advise you on conservation glass, and take responsibility for an irreplaceable original.

That is a real service and for some pieces it's the right call. But for a print, a photo, a poster or a puzzle, you are paying for a workshop you don't need. The cost is the labour and the premises — not the frame.

Is affordable picture framing any good?

It depends entirely on where the saving comes from.

A saving that comes from cutting materials — thin backing board, acidic mount card, styrene that scratches — is a false economy. It'll yellow your artwork, and you'll pay twice.

A saving that comes from cutting overheads is not. We don't run a shop floor, we cut to size in batches rather than one at a time, and we let you do the design work yourself in the browser instead of paying someone to do it at a counter. The materials don't change. The price does.

So: affordable framing is worth having when the frame is made properly and the saving is structural. Ask what was removed. If the answer is "the shop", that's a good deal. If the answer is "the mount board", it isn't.

How to spend less without regretting it

Use a standard size if you can. Ready-made is always cheaper than made-to-measure, because someone else already absorbed the setup cost.

Choose a slimmer moulding. The difference between a slim profile and a deep ornate one is often the difference between two price brackets, and on a small print the slim frame frequently looks better anyway.

Keep the mount, lose the width. A mount is cheap relative to what it does. A very wide mount pushes you into a larger frame, which is where the money goes.

Don't economise on glazing for anything irreplaceable. This is the one place to spend.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to frame a picture?
A ready-made frame in a standard size costs from the low tens of pounds. Made-to-measure framing starts at £26 and rises with size, moulding and mount. The biggest single factor is size, because material cost scales with area.

Why is picture framing so expensive?
Usually it isn't the frame — it's the labour and the premises. A high-street framer cuts one frame at a time, by hand, in a shop with rent and staff. Framing online removes the shop and the counter service, not the materials.

Is custom framing worth it?
Worth it when the piece isn't a standard size, when it needs a mount cut to specific proportions, or when it's valuable enough to deserve proper glazing and acid-free backing. For a standard-size print, a ready-made frame does the same job for less.

What's the cheapest way to frame a picture?
Buy a ready-made frame in a standard size and put the picture in it yourself. If your piece isn't a standard size, made-to-measure is the only route — but you can still control the price by choosing a slimmer moulding and a narrower mount.

Does a mount add much to the cost?
Not much on its own — £4–£17 for a standard mount. But a wide mount means a bigger frame, and the frame is where the cost scales.

Based near us? We're a framing workshop in Richmond, London — you can see mouldings and mounts against your artwork by appointment.