Every corner cut by hand, and an honest word when a shop frame will do

Prints, posters, children's drawings, a grandmother's embroidery, a football shirt. One framer, one mitre saw and a wall of mouldings to choose from. Bring the thing in; we'll decide together what it deserves.

See four ways to frame it

Dozens of empty wooden picture frames in faded reds, blues, greens and yellows stacked against each other.

Four ways to frame the same picture

Prices for an A3 print. Most people come in wanting the second and leave with the first, because it was enough.

A thin black and oak frame leaning against a wall beside a glass vase with a leaf in it.

Simple

Plain moulding, a white mount, ordinary glass. For posters you might change in a year.

£48

Two black frames with wide white mounts on a pale pink wall, a drawing of a fox in one.

Proper

Hardwood, a deep mount, acid-free backing. For prints and drawings you mean to keep.

£95

A thin copper-coloured frame with a cream mount on a shelf beside an hourglass and a toy horse.

Conservation

Museum mount, UV-filtering glass, nothing that touches the paper is glued. For originals.

£160

Gilded

Hand-finished gold leaf on a carved moulding. For the one picture in the house that asks for it.

from £320

Prices

Quoted at the counter, written on a ticket, and that is the price. No surprise when you collect.

Before you bring it in

Postcard to A4, simplefrom £28
A3, proper£95
Box frame for objects and shirtsfrom £120
Stretching embroidery or textilefrom £40
Re-glazing your own framefrom £18

The workshop

Mouldings arrive as three-metre lengths. Everything after that happens here.

The mitred corners of a black frame and an oak frame overlapping in bright light. — Forty-five degrees, twice, joined with glue and a v-nail.

Two wooden frame corners crossing, one oak and one black, on a white surface. — Oak, ash, walnut and black, in four widths.

On the wall

A few recent jobs, back on the walls they were made for.

A white wall hung with many small framed prints and plants on narrow shelves. — Eighteen small prints, one wall, one afternoon.

Black and white photograph of pencil drawings and a seascape in frames on a grey wall. — Pencil portraits in white, the sea in black.

The odd ones

Old cameras, medals, a shirt, a letter. If it is flat enough to hang, it can go in a box frame.

A wall of black frames, each holding an old camera, above a lamp and a plant. — Eleven cameras, eleven box frames, one collector.

An empty white frame lying on grey boards, the shadow of a palm leaf falling across it.

Before you bring it in

Don't trim anything: Leave the edges of a print alone. Trimming is the one thing we can't undo, and a mount hides a lot.

How long: About ten working days. Gilded frames six weeks, because the gold is laid in layers.

Valuable things: Tell us before you leave it. We'll photograph it with you at the counter and it stays in the locked cabinet.

Hanging: Every frame comes with the right fixings for its weight. Within two miles we'll hang it for £15.