NakedArt

Assembly guide

How to stretch your painting

The painting is dry, the frame is in its box, and now the two have to meet. One afternoon is enough. Start with the video — forty seconds, from unrolled canvas to a nail in the wall. The same nine steps are written out below it.

The whole build in 43 secondsFrom unrolled canvas to a painting on the wall.

What you need

From the box

  • Four frame bars and the crossbar
  • A staple gun with staples
  • A bag of wedges
  • Two hangers

From around the house

  • A book — or anything with a right angle you trust
  • Scissors, for the canvas overhang
  • A hammer, for the hangers
  • Clear some floor space for the 120 × 90 cm frame

Nine steps

The same order as the sheet in the box

  1. Four frame bars pushed into a rectangle, the crossbar sliding diagonally into the middle

    Push the frame together

    The bars slot into each other tongue-and-groove, always all the way in. No glue, no staples. Slide the crossbar into the middle last.

  2. A book held against a frame corner, with a 90 degree marking beside it

    Check the corners

    Every corner has to be exactly 90°. Hold a book against one from the inside. If a gap shows, push the bars further in.

  3. The painted canvas laid out face down with the frame resting on it

    Lay the canvas out

    Painted side down, on the floor. The canvas is 160 × 100 cm and the frame is 120 × 90 — leave about 5 cm all round to wrap with, and cut the rest off.

  4. The frame centred on the canvas, crossbar facing up

    Position the frame

    Lay it on the canvas crossbar side up and centre it. This is where you choose the crop — only what sits inside the frame ends up on the wall.

  5. The frame with canvas wrapped over it and tension arrows from all four sides

    Staple the sides

    One staple in the middle of each side first, alternating opposite sides. Then all the way round every 3–5 cm, pulling the canvas taut at every staple.

  6. A canvas corner folded into a triangle on the back of the frame

    Fold the corners

    Lay the extra fabric flat to one side — the way you fold wrapping paper.

  7. A hand driving a staple into the folded canvas corner with the staple gun

    Staple the corners

    Hold the fold down and drive a staple through it. Now, not earlier — a corner stapled before the sides cannot be fixed afterwards.

  8. A wedge being pushed into a frame corner from behind

    Leave the wedges

    In their bag. They only go in if the canvas becomes slack after a few months. Tap all eight wedges in evenly, a millimetre at a time. Driven in on day one, the whole tension reserve is spent immediately.

  9. Two hangers being hammered into the top bar of the frame

    Hammer in the hangers

    Into the top bar, about 15 cm in from each corner. The teeth go into the wood under a hammer. The painting then hangs on two nails — done.

The whole guide on one sheet

The same sheet that came with the kit. If it has gone missing, open it full size and print it — it is a plain A4 page.

The printed sheet is in Polish — the drawings show the same nine steps as above.

Stretching guide — nine illustrated steps on one A4 sheetOpen full size

Frame kit for your painting

See what is in the kit

Something not working?

Didn't find your answer? Write to us at [email protected] — we're happy to help, that's exactly what we're here for!

Yes, and that is the plan. The canvas is 160 × 100 cm and the frame is 120 × 90 — the difference is the overhang that wraps round the edge to the back, where the staples go. Leave about 5 cm all round and cut the rest off. The long side leaves more than you need, so you get to decide which part of the painting ends up on the wall.
No. The corners hold tongue-and-groove, and the whole thing holds on the tension of the canvas. Glue would lock a corner for good — and the frame has to stay adjustable, or the wedges are useless.
They are the tension reserve for later. Wood and canvas move with humidity, and after a few months the canvas can become slack. The wedges then spread the corners by a fraction of a millimetre and it is taut again. Driven in on the first day that reserve is gone, and there is no second one.
It is fixable. Pull the staples out of that one side, pull the canvas from the middle outwards and staple it again every 3–5 cm. Ripples almost always come from finishing one side completely before starting the others — which is exactly why step 5 alternates across opposite sides.
An afternoon, less with two of you — the stapling itself takes around 10 to 20 minutes. Most of the time goes on choosing the crop in step 4, because it is the one decision you cannot take back.
The floor. Allow enough space for the 120 × 90 cm frame and for the whole canvas to lie flat. Put something underneath unless you want staples in the carpet.