I’m making a large “picture frame”. There will be logos and text I’ll cut out and put on the frame as well. The entire frame will be painted. Want it to have a clean cut look.
The below image shows the size of the frame. I’m looking to see if anyone has any ideas as how to construct something like this. I’ve been thinking I can use one of the following:
Plywood Sheets
Pros
Easily available
Multiple thicknesses available at 4x8 sheets
Cons
Weight
Need to heavily seal the board with a primer of some kind to remove grain detail
PVC Sheets
Pros
Less weight (compared to plywood and not confirmed just picked them up and they felt lighter)
Cleaner look and less finish work compared to plywood
Cons
Availability
Thicknesses are only 1/2 at big box stores
Standard Insulation Boards
Pros
Cheapest option
Weight
Cons
Not clean edges when cut
Afraid of paint chipping when finished project is hit
Personally I would go with a high quality pre sanded and primed 3/4" plywood. It’s a little more expensive, but it will save you a lot of finish work. Something like this:
You might be able to away with 1/2" ply of that variety which would save you some money and weight. Cut some L-shaped or triangular pieces from the ply to join the corners from the back with glue and/or screws.
You could go with PVC, but at 1/2" it’s going to have a lot of flex unless you double up the pieces to make it 1" thick.
Im thinking Ill build the inside with Plywood then do the overhanging border with the PVC. This will hide all the end grain of the plywood and leave less finish work. As for getting the wood to look like the PVC when painted, any thoughts there? I was thinking of just doing multiple layers of primer and sanding them before painting.
If you use the presanded and primed ply I recommended you will not have to do any extra work but paint the wood. Other wise it’s just sanding and then doing a couple of priming coats before painting.
