How I print and frame vintage art downloads (+ 2 FREE downloads!)

THE FARMHOUSE

We’re getting oh so close to calling our primary bathroom done, and I wanted to share a little looksie at some of the art we have in here. The two pieces over the toilet are actually prints of vintage paintings that I love and downloaded. And today I’m walking through my DIY process for printing and framing vintage art downloads so that they look their best. psst: you can download both of these prints for FREE below!

psst: I rounded up more of my favorite vintage and new landscape art prints here

The top piece is a landscape by Lionel Constable (1828-1887), an English painter. And the bottom piece is called “Still life with roses in a glass vase” by Charles Hermans (1839-1924), a Belgian painter. Aren’t they lovely?

Both pieces are in the public domain so I can share them with you as downloads. Click the buttons below to get your own free copy. Note, these are jpg format and I very lightly adjusted the brightness - digitizing art is not an exact science.

landscape FREE download

Roses FREE download

Many thanks to Lionel Constable and Charles Hermans for the hours and hours of appreciation I’ll get out of these prints while staring at them from my new bathtub ;)

Okay, let’s talk about how I print and frame these vintage downloads…

DIY // How I print and frame vintage art downloads

Materials

Unstretched canvas print (see below for how to print downloads)

Frame (I have a vintage one on the wall and this wood frame in the tutorial)

Backing - something stiff to wrap the canvas around, cut to the size of your frame

Tape (I used packaging tape but masking tape would look much better ;)

Scissors

Order print

Save the download to you computer and then upload it to a printing service. I’ve been using iPrintFromeHome.com for years and love the quality (tell them the Grit and Polish sent you!). But wherever you print, make sure to print on unstretched canvas if you’re trying to get the look I’m sharing here. The goal with vintage prints is to make the art look as real as possible and the canvas adds texture and more authenticity than paper IMO.

I’ll walk you through the printing steps and products I use at iPrintFromeHome.com for vintage downloads like these (btw, not sponsored!, but wouldn’t that be cool?!)…

Printing at iprintfromhome.com…

Click ‘Add photos’ on the top bar.
You can select ‘new album’ or ‘existing album’ and then click “Proceed to upload photos from my computer”
Click ‘+ Add photos’ and then navigate on your computer to the saved download. Repeat this step to add any additional pieces you want to print. And then click ‘Start upload’
Once the images are uploaded to the site you’ll be directed to a screen titled Order Prints. Check the box under the image you’d like to print. And then on the right side of the screen select quantity of prints you’d like, select ‘Unstretched canvas giclee’ under print surface (I also like their Somerset Velvet Giclee if I’m printing on paper), and then select your print size. The print will be automatically uploaded to your cart. Repeat this step with each image you’d like to print.

Frame print

Cut the canvas down to your frame size plus 1” border on all sides. You want enough extra to wrap and secure the canvas to the back of the backing.

Then place your canvas good-side down and put the backing in the center of the back. Wrap the canvas around the backing and secure with tape. I used clear packaging tape but masking tape would look a lot nicer ;)

Stretch opposite sides first that way you get the canvas nice and tight. If you’re using a really large canvas it might be difficult to get it totally flat, so you might opt to glue it straight to your backing before wrapping it.

Once you’ve secured all the sides to your backing you can put it in your frame. I usually choose to forgo the glass to make the canvas look more like an original painting, but that’s up to you.

The frame I used here comes with a back with mounting hardware so I put that in, flipped it over, and voila!