How to Price a Custom Picture Frame: A Framer’s Pricing Guide

Pricing a custom frame is where a frame shop either makes its margin or quietly gives it away. The job itself is craft: choosing a moulding, cutting clean mats, fitting glazing without a speck of dust. But the number you write on the quote is arithmetic, and that arithmetic decides whether you stay in business. Get it consistent and you can quote with confidence at the counter. Get it sloppy and you discover, months later, that your most popular frame was losing money on every order.

This guide walks through every cost component in a custom frame, the difference between markup and margin (and why confusing them is so expensive), and a complete worked example you can follow line by line. The goal is not a magic number — it is a repeatable method you apply the same way every single time.

What you are actually charging for

A custom frame is not one product. It is a small assembly of materials and labour, and each part has its own cost behaviour. Before you can price anything you need to see the bill of materials clearly:

• Moulding — the frame itself, priced by the foot of material you consume, including waste at the corners.
• Matting — one or more mats around the artwork, traditionally priced by the united-inch method.
• Glazing — the glass or acrylic, priced by area or by united inch, and varying sharply by tier (regular, conservation, museum, anti-reflective).
• Backing — foamboard, mat board, or acid-free backing behind the piece.
• Mounting and fitting labour — your time to cut, assemble, mount the art, and fit everything together.
• Hardware — wire, bumpers, hangers, dust cover.
• Overhead — rent, utilities, tools, insurance, and the slice of your day that doesn’t bill directly.

The mistake beginners make is pricing only the obvious materials — the moulding and the glass — and treating mats, backing, hardware, and especially labour as free. Those “small” items are exactly where margin leaks out.

Component 1: Moulding, priced by chop footage

Moulding is sold by the foot, but you do not consume the visible perimeter of the finished frame. You consume more, because every 45-degree corner cut wastes material and you need a corner allowance so the chop joins cleanly.

The footage you actually use is based on the outer dimensions of the frame, not the artwork. The frame’s outer size is the artwork plus the mat borders on each side, plus a small amount for the rabbet, plus twice the face width of the moulding on each axis.

A practical rule many framers use for chop footage:

United inches of the OUTER frame = outer width + outer height
Linear feet of moulding = (perimeter in inches + corner allowance) / 12

Where the perimeter is 2 × (outer width + outer height) and the corner allowance accounts for the four mitred corners — commonly an extra amount per corner, often estimated at roughly the face width of the moulding per corner, or a flat allowance such as a few extra inches total. Treat the exact allowance as a shop policy you set once and apply every time.

So the cost is:

Moulding cost = linear feet (incl. corner allowance) × your price per foot

Two things matter here. First, your price per foot should be your real cost, not the list price, and second, wide mouldings consume far more material than their nominal face width suggests because the outer frame grows on all four sides. A 3-inch ornate moulding on a small print can cost more in material than the print itself — and the customer should be quoted accordingly.

Component 2: Matting, by the united-inch method

Mats are priced not by square inches but by united inches — width plus height of the cut mat, added together as a single linear figure. United inches is the framing trade’s standard because it tracks both material consumption and cutting labour in one number, and it scales sensibly across sizes.

United inches = mat width + mat height (in inches)

The mat size is the artwork size plus the mat border (the reveal of mat showing around the art) on each side. A 16×20 print with a 2.5-inch border becomes a mat that is 16 + 5 = 21 wide and 20 + 5 = 25 tall, because the border appears on both sides of each dimension. That is 21 + 25 = 46 united inches.

You then apply a price-per-united-inch rate from your catalog. Most shops set tiered rates — a base rate for standard mat board and higher rates for conservation/acid-free board, suede, fabric-wrapped, or specialty mats. A double mat (a second mat with a small reveal of the under-mat showing) roughly adds a second mat’s worth of united inches and an additional cut.

For a deeper treatment of why this method works and how to set your per-united-inch rates, see the dedicated guide on united-inch pricing for framers.

Component 3: Glazing, by area or united inch, by tier

Glazing is the glass or acrylic over the artwork, and it is the component with the widest price spread, because the tier matters enormously:

• Regular glass — clear, basic, reflective, no UV protection. The cheapest tier.
• Conservation glass — UV-filtering coating that protects art and mats from fading. A meaningful step up in cost and the default many shops recommend for anything worth keeping.
• Museum glass — combines UV protection with anti-reflective coating; the glass nearly disappears. The premium tier.
• Anti-reflective (non-conservation) — reduces glare without the full UV package.

Glazing is priced either by area (square inches or square feet) or by united inch of the glass size, multiplied by a per-unit rate that differs for each tier. The glass is cut to the frame’s interior — roughly the outer mat size — so for our 16×20 with 2.5-inch mats, the glass is about 21 × 25 inches.

Because tier choice can multiply the glazing cost several times over, it is the single biggest lever in a quote. Explaining the tiers to the customer is part of the sale, not an afterthought. The picture frame glass and glazing guide covers how to present these tiers and when each is worth recommending.

Component 4: Backing, hardware, and the line items that hide

Behind the art sits backing — acid-free foamboard or mat board — typically priced by united inch or as a flat per-size charge. It is cheap individually and easy to forget, which is exactly why it should be a standing line item rather than something you remember to add.

Hardware is similar: wire, D-rings or strap hangers, rubber bumpers, and the paper dust cover on the back. None of these is expensive, but together they are a real cost, and a shop that “throws them in for free” on every job is donating margin daily. Bundle them into a small flat fitting/finishing charge so they are never skipped.

Component 5: Labour, the cost everyone underprices

Labour is your time, and it is the component most often left out entirely. Cutting moulding, joining corners, cutting single and double mats, hinging or mounting the artwork, cleaning glass, and fitting the package all take skilled minutes. If you do not price your time, you are working for materials cost.

There are two common approaches:

• Time-based — estimate the minutes a job takes and multiply by your shop labour rate. Accurate but slow to quote.
• Built-in labour — fold a labour component into your material markups and add a flat fitting charge, so the quote stays fast at the counter.

Most shops use a blend: markups on materials that already include a labour contribution, plus an explicit fitting/assembly charge. Whatever you choose, be deliberate — labour priced by accident is labour priced too low.

Component 6: Overhead and the shop minimum

Rent, utilities, equipment depreciation, insurance, software, and the unbillable parts of your day are real costs that no single frame line item captures. Overhead is recovered through your markups and through a shop minimum — the lowest price you will accept for any custom job regardless of how small it is.

A shop minimum protects you from the tiny job that costs almost nothing in materials but still ties up the same counter conversation, design time, cutting setup, and fitting bench as a large one. Set a minimum and apply it without apology; a 5×7 custom frame should never be priced as if your time were worthless.

Markup vs margin: the distinction that protects your shop

This is the single most important concept in pricing, and confusing the two is the fastest way to lose money without noticing.

• Markup is added on top of cost. A 3× markup means you sell at three times what the item cost you.
• Margin is the profit as a percentage of the selling price, not the cost.

They are not the same number, and the gap between them is large:

• A 2× markup (sell at twice cost) is a 50% margin.
• A 3× markup is about a 67% margin.
• A 4× markup is a 75% margin.

The trap is thinking “I want a 50% margin, so I’ll add 50%.” Adding 50% to cost is only a 33% margin — you have quietly given yourself a third less profit than you intended. Always be clear about which number you are working in. If you set targets in margin, convert to the markup multiplier before you price; if you set markups, know what margin they actually deliver.

In framing, markup multipliers are the usual working tool because they are fast to apply per component. Different components often carry different multipliers — glazing and mats frequently take higher multipliers than moulding footage, partly to recover cutting labour. The exact numbers are a decision each shop makes based on its costs and market; treat any multiplier you read about as a starting concept to test against your own books, not a rule handed down from on high.

Rush fees and add-ons

Two more levers belong in your pricing policy:

• Rush fees — a percentage surcharge for jobs needed faster than your normal turnaround. This is not gouging; expediting a job displaces other work and costs you flexibility. A defined rush fee lets you say yes to urgency profitably.
• Specialty add-ons — float mounting, fillets, spacers, fabric mats, non-standard mounting, oversized handling. Each should have a line item, not a vague “I’ll add a bit.”

A full worked example

Let’s price a real job from start to finish. The numbers below are illustrative example figures, not industry data — plug in your own catalog rates.

The order: a 16×20 photographic print, single 2.5-inch mat, conservation glass, in a 1.25-inch-wide moulding.

Step 1 — Establish the sizes.

• Artwork: 16 × 20 inches.
• Mat border: 2.5 inches on every side, so the mat opening sits inside a mat that is 16 + 5 = 21 wide and 20 + 5 = 25 tall.
• Outer frame size: add the moulding face width on both sides. With a 1.25-inch moulding, the outer frame is roughly 21 + 2.5 = 23.5 wide and 25 + 2.5 = 27.5 tall (ignoring the small rabbet overlap for simplicity).

Step 2 — Moulding.

• Outer perimeter: 2 × (23.5 + 27.5) = 2 × 51 = 102 inches.
• Add a corner allowance — say a flat 10 inches for the four mitred corners on a moulding this width.
• Linear feet: (102 + 10) / 12 = 112 / 12 ≈ 9.33 feet.
• At an example cost of $4.00/ft: 9.33 × 4.00 = $37.32 material cost.
• Apply a 3× markup: $37.32 × 3 = $111.96.

Step 3 — Matting.

• Mat size: 21 × 25, so united inches = 21 + 25 = 46.
• At an example conservation-mat rate of $0.45 per united inch, already marked up: 46 × 0.45 = $20.70.

Step 4 — Glazing (conservation).

• Glass size: about 21 × 25 inches = 525 square inches.
• At an example conservation-glass rate of $0.06 per square inch, already marked up: 525 × 0.06 = $31.50.

Step 5 — Backing.

• Acid-free foamboard at the same 21 × 25 size, example flat charge $8.00.

Step 6 — Fitting, hardware, and assembly labour.

• Flat fitting/finishing charge covering wire, bumpers, dust cover, glass cleaning, and assembly: example $25.00.

Step 7 — Total it up.

Step 8 — Apply shop policy.

• Compare to your shop minimum (say $75). The subtotal clears it, so no adjustment.
• Add sales tax per your jurisdiction on the taxable total.
• Round to a clean figure if that’s your convention — e.g., quote $197 before tax.

Walk that same path on every job and you will never again wonder whether you remembered the backing or the fitting charge. The discipline is in doing it identically each time.

Why consistency beats any single number

Here is the uncomfortable truth: the exact multipliers you choose matter far less than applying them the same way every time. A shop with slightly low markups applied consistently will outlast a shop with great markups applied haphazardly, because the consistent shop knows its real numbers and can adjust them deliberately.

Eyeballing a price, or pricing from a dog-eared spreadsheet someone built three years ago and never updated, fails in predictable ways:

• Forgotten line items. The backing, the second mat, the hardware — each “small” omission is pure lost margin.
• Stale costs. Moulding and glazing prices change. A spreadsheet that still uses last year’s per-foot costs underquotes silently.
• Inconsistent labour. Some quotes include fitting time, some don’t, depending on how busy you were that morning.
• Markup/margin confusion creeping back in, eroding profit a few dollars at a time.

Quoting from a real, current catalog — your actual costs, your chosen markups, your minimum — removes all of this. It turns pricing from a judgment call into a calculation, and a calculation can be made identical every time.

Where Mitre fits

This is precisely the arithmetic that Mitre, a custom picture-framing studio app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, is built to remove. You compose the frame — artwork size, single or double mats with reveals, glazing tier, and a moulding from your own catalog — and Mitre draws a live, to-scale proof while it prices the job from your prices: moulding footage with corner allowance, united-inch matting, glass area, backing, and labour, every line itemised, with your markup, tax, and minimum applied automatically. One tap produces a branded client quote PDF and a shop cut-sheet listing glass size, mat openings, frame outer size, and the moulding chop length with corner allowance. It runs fully offline, with no account, no cloud, and no subscription — a one-time purchase, and considerably cheaper over time than Windows POS systems like FrameReady, LifeSaver, or SimulArt.

Mitre — Picture framing quotes & proofs Download

The point is not that the app invents your prices — it encodes the catalog and policy you already decided on, then does the worked example above instantly and identically on every order. The judgment stays yours; the arithmetic stops being a source of error. For more on doing this fast in front of a customer, see how to quote a custom frame at the counter, and for the full picture of tools that support a framing business, the hub on the best apps for picture framing and frame shops.

Tools that support the pricing workflow

Pricing sits inside a small business that has to schedule, bill, and keep its records straight. A few companion apps round out the workflow:

• Emailing quotes — a quote PDF should land in an inbox cleanly. PDF Compressor shrinks the file without wrecking the proof image, and Photo to PDF turns reference shots of a customer’s artwork into a tidy PDF for the job file.
• Scheduling deadlines — CalXport exports your events and reminders to Excel so you can plan the bench around delivery promises.
• Printing oversized proofs — XLPrinter tiles posters and blueprints across multiple sheets so you can lay out a full-size proof on the bench.
• Tracking shop assets — Equipt keeps an asset register for saws, mat cutters, and presses so maintenance and replacement don’t surprise you.

If you run the shop largely on your own, the roundups of the best apps for small business owners and the best apps for freelancers cover the wider back-office picture.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the united-inch method and why do framers use it?

United inches is the sum of a piece’s width and height in inches — for a 21 × 25 mat, that’s 46 united inches. Framers price mats and often glazing this way because a single linear figure tracks both material consumption and cutting labour across all sizes, and it scales more sensibly than square inches for the long, thin geometry of frames. See the united-inch pricing guide for the full method.

What’s the difference between markup and margin?

Markup is added on top of your cost; margin is profit as a percentage of the selling price. A 2× markup equals a 50% margin, a 3× markup about 67%, and a 4× markup 75%. The common error is “adding 50%” expecting a 50% margin — that’s actually only a 33% margin. Always know which number you’re working in before you quote.

How do I price the moulding when I only know the artwork size?

Build outward. Add the mat border on each side to get the mat size, add the moulding face width on each side to get the outer frame size, then take the outer perimeter, add your corner allowance for the four mitred cuts, and divide by 12 for linear feet. Multiply by your cost per foot, then apply your markup. Wide mouldings consume far more than their face width suggests because the whole frame grows.

Why do I need a shop minimum?

Because a tiny job ties up the same design conversation, cutting setup, and fitting bench as a large one, even though its materials cost almost nothing. A shop minimum ensures every custom order covers the fixed time and overhead it consumes. Set it and apply it without exception.

Should glazing really cost so much more for conservation or museum tiers?

Yes, and it should — those tiers cost you materially more and deliver real value (UV protection, anti-reflective coatings) that protects the customer’s artwork. Glazing is often the biggest single lever in a quote, so explaining the tiers is part of the sale. The glass and glazing guide covers how to present each tier.

How can I make sure I never forget a line item?

Price every job through the same checklist — moulding, matting, glazing, backing, fitting and hardware, then apply markup, minimum, and tax — and do it identically every time. Pricing from a current catalog rather than memory or a stale spreadsheet is what makes that consistency possible. A tool like Mitre enforces the checklist automatically, itemising every line from your own prices.

Are the numbers in your worked example real industry rates?

No. Every figure in the worked example — $4.00 per foot, $0.45 per united inch, $0.06 per square inch, the fitting charge, and the markups — is an illustrative example to show the arithmetic. Your own catalog costs and market will be different. Use the method, not the specific numbers.