How to Make a Porthole Frame

Framing a sign turns it into a decoration.

A porthole is almost a picture frame, especially if it still has its glass. A porthole with a solid brass rim is difficult to modify, but you can take advantage of the porthole's structure -- its cylindrical rim and screw holes in the outside edge -- to turn it into a frame without modifying the brass. Use the porthole frame for a picture of a beach landscape with palm trees for a tropical accent or a seascape to give a room a nautical touch.

Things You'll Need

• Brass-rimmed porthole
• Bone folder or chopstick
• Scissors
• 1/2-inch thick foam rubber
• Electric knife or shears
• Picture
• Nail

Instructions

1. Lay a brass-rimmed porthole with its front side down on a flat surface. Press a sheet of paper against the porthole's glass so the excess paper folds upward around the inside edge of the rim. Gently move the point of a bone folder or chopstick around the inside of the rim, making a circular crease in the paper.

2. Remove the paper, and cut along its circular crease. The result will be a pattern for cutting. Use the pattern to draw a circle on 1/2-inch thick foam rubber.

3. Cut out the foam rubber circle with an electric knife or shears. It will be the back of the porthole frame.

4. Place the circular paper pattern on the part of a picture you want to place in the porthole frame. Draw around the circular paper on the picture. Cut out the circular portion of the picture.

5. Place the circular picture behind the glass in the porthole. Insert the circular foam rubber in the opening in the back of the porthole to hold the picture in place. Use one of the screw holes in the porthole's rim to hang the porthole frame on a wall nail.

Tips & Warnings

• If the porthole lost its glass, trace the inside of its rim on paper. Take the tracing to a glass store to have a piece of glass cut to that size.