Welcome to The Senior Woodworker! I Finished another paid job today. This one, a custom picture frame for an iconic New Orleans street litho. The customer brought me a 36×30″ print and said he wanted a “pink look” to match the print. I decided to go with a red cedar for this one.
Below I’m done with the cutting, glue up, dados and splines and I’m filling in the voids and knots with some epoxy. The smell in the shop is awesome!
Here is the final project. 3/4″ x 2 1/2″ Red Cedar with mahogany corner splines, 3/8″ red matt covered by 3 1/2″ tan matting and 3/32″ glass, sealed to the frame and pinned with glazing points. The wood was finished to 400 grit with six coats of poly. The back is finished with an inset, acid free, white styro backer board with turn buttons and white 2″ tape all the way around to make the frame airtight. The hanging wire is 26ELE Picture Hanging Wire 50lb from Amazon. This is a wonderful wire and no frays!
The final cost for the wood was $8.00 for the 2x10x8′ rough cut board of which I still have about half left and I’m making another frame for the Wife with a 1/4″ inlay of mahogany… but that’s another project!
Labor came out to four hours total; a little more than I wanted, but still below the original estimate. Matting and glass added another $24.00 to the cost. All-in-all, the total project cost was $72.00. The glass pins (or glazing points), turn buttons, sealant, backing paper and board added to the cost and were the most expensive supplies for the job coming in at about $40.00 or so.
So my original estimate to the customer was $450.00. His 2nd lowest bid on the job was $525.00. Custom framing done well, is very expensive in the New Orleans area and one of the reasons I love making them!
My total supply costs came out to $72.00
Labor came in at four hours or $220.00 @$55/hr
Final price to the customer was $300.00, so I received $228.00 in total profit.
The customer was ecstatic at the final result! He said the job exceeded both he and his wife’s expectations and it looks wonderful in their new house. In fact, he texted me a picture:
I hope you enjoyed this breakdown on the job! Thanks for reading!
What am I doing next?