If you’ve bought an unstretched canvas, you’re just a few extra steps away from displaying your original, commissioned oil painting. Before you get started, you’ll need to buy stretcher bars for the four sides and a center support beam (or two center support beams, if your painting is particularly large). You can acquire these at most art supply stores. You will also need either a staple gun or carpet tacks and a hammer.

On a flat surface, join the four support beams to make a rectangle that is the size of the photo oil painting on your canvas. You can either size the support beams so that the edges are white or so that the image wraps around the edges, as in the gallery wrap framing option on our website (www.oilpaintingexpress.com). Once you have verified that the corners are square, place and join the support beams as well.

Be sure to wash your hands before handling your still life painting or portrait painting, to prevent leaving oils from your fingers on the canvas. With clean hands, gently place your commissioned oil painting’s canvas facedown on a clean, smooth, flat surface. Fold each side of the canvas over the frame, attaching the canvas to the center of each beam with one staple. Staple opposite sides first (top, then bottom, then left, then right), rather than stapling in a circle, to ensure that the canvas is stretched properly. Before placing any more staples, check to see that the image is centered and aligned on the beams as you would like it to be.