To order a canvas picture frame or a canvas floater frame, you need accurate measurements of your stretched canvas: its width, its height and its depth. This short guide shows how to take them.
You'll need a metal tape measure, and a pen and paper.
How to measure a stretched canvas
Prefer our earlier video? Watch “How To Measure A Stretched Canvas” on YouTube.
Step by step
1. Lay the canvas flat
Put the canvas face up on a clean, hard, level surface, such as a table or worktop, and make sure there's nothing on it that could scratch the front. Not a bed, sofa or carpet: a soft surface lets the canvas and the tape sag. Use a metal tape measure: fabric and plastic tapes stretch, and can be several millimetres out. Work in millimetres.
2. Check it's square
Measure both diagonals, from the top left corner to the bottom right, and from the top right to the bottom left. If they're within a few millimetres of each other, the canvas is square. A bigger difference means it's out of square: measure it carefully at every point in the next steps, and use the largest sizes.
3. Measure the width
Hook the end of the tape over the left edge, including the folded side of the canvas, run it straight across, and read where the right edge falls. Measure across the top, the middle and the bottom, and use the largest.
4. Measure the height
Do the same from top to bottom, at the left, the middle and the right, and use the largest.
5. Measure the depth
Measure the depth of the canvas at its side, from the front of the canvas to the back of the wooden stretcher bars.
- Canvas floater frames: the depth matters most here. Choose a frame with an internal depth close to the depth of your canvas; the floater frames page can show you the frames that suit it.
- Canvas picture frames: a canvas deeper than the frame's internal depth sticks out at the back.
Never go by the packaging. The sizes printed on labels are often approximate, or rounded from inches. The canvas in the video is sold as 20 × 16 inches (508 × 406mm) but measures 507 × 405mm. Always measure the canvas itself.
6. Write it down, check it, then order
Write the sizes down clearly: width, height and depth. On the frame's page, enter the exact sizes you measured, and don't add anything for the fit:
- for a canvas floater frame, the shadow gap round the canvas is added for you;
- for a canvas picture frame, the size you enter is the largest canvas that will fit.
Then check everything again, or ask someone else to check it. Frames are made to your measurements, so they can't be refunded or exchanged.
Still not sure? Send us a photo of your canvas with the tape measure across it, by email to sales@easyframe.co.uk, or call 01234 856501, and we'll be happy to advise.