Odd-Shaped Frames for Dummies

DIY hexagons

The freelancers who infest content farms seem to be born politicians. Ever notice how, when you ask politicians questions they can't – or don't want to – answer, they pivot to the answer they want to give? Back in the bad old days, a lot of contributors to eHow.com did pretty much the same thing. Ask 'em a question they can't answer, and they answer a question that may be tangentially related that they can answer. Take, for example, Gina Samarotto and her SFGate.com post, "How to Frame Odd Shapes."

Samarotto, drawing on her "award-winning designer" chops, gifted the internet with almost 500 words about how to use rectangular frames.

Yep, that's what she did, including such hints as,

"Start by curating a collection of the items you want to showcase. "

But wait, Gina: we already have the "item" on hand, and want to frame it. So how? Well, Gina's advice included such scintillating prose as,

"Look for frames with a deeper 'rabbet'... make use of custom matting services to fit your odd-sized artwork or object into a standard size [sic] frame... A fresh coat of paint works wonders to give your eclectic collection a curated look." 

But Gina: except perhaps for that bit about custom matting, you still didn't address the question of "odd shapes"! We suspect the reason you didn't was because you had no friggin' idea. So let's help the OQ.

When it comes to truly odd shapes, you're on your own: you'll probably end up using a rectangular frame. But if the object isn't really all that odd, there are some tricks to the trade. The corners of a square frame meet at 90°, meaning that the two framing pieces are cut at 45° angles. If you need to frame something that doesn't have four corners, here's how you figure out those angles:

The formula for the inside angle of a polygon is pretty simple. For a regular polygon with n sides, the total of the interior angles, A can be determined by the formula 

A = 180 * (n - 2)

Take a square, for instance: the total of the interior angles equals 180 * 2, or 360. There are 4 interior angles, so each one totals 90°; cut into two halves you get that 45° angle on each member of a mitered corner. For a pentagon (five sides) the total is 540, each angle is 108°, and you'd cut your miter at 54°. Hexagons? It works out to 60°...

There, Gina, that wasn't so hard, was it... oh, yeah, we forgot: you're the Dumbass of the Day. That's what you get for pivoting to something you understood and leaving the question unanswered.

DDIY - CRAFTS