How to Design the Mat for a Picture Frame

Video Transcript

"On behalf of Expert Village, I am Debbie Reeves at John's Design Center and I am here to tell you about custom picture framing. So, when you bring a picture in, you want to know how do we design this. Should we do a single mat? A double mat? Or should we do a mat like this one here? This is a design that one of my...the master mat cutter Susan, who's been here for twenty years...she won this award nineteen years ago. This is an original watercolor. They make computer mat cutters today. But, you know what? You couldn't do this kind of a cut. This was specially made for this picture. She hand drew every single one of these. There is no way that she made a template. There's no template that you could make. So this is a one of a kind mat, specifically for this picture and it looks absolutely beautiful. But then, we can also do a picture like this where we have designed a larger top and bottom than the sides. So, it makes this picture absolutely gorgeous. Then, we've chosen a frame that was actually done in Italy that matches this photograph. So, you could either do it simply by putting a larger top and bottom, or you can put a beautiful hand cut mat around your picture. So, there's a lot to designing; both the size and the design."