How to Frame a Bible Verse So It Looks Like Art, Not a Plaque

A bible verse frame has one job: to let the words sit quietly on the wall and look like something you chose, not something handed out at a fundraiser. Three choices decide it. A plain frame in a warm tone rather than a shiny or ornate one. A mat wider than feels necessary. And a size matched to the wall instead of to the print.

The short answer, if that is all you came for: for a cream-toned scripture print, use a thin frame in natural oak, ash or light maple, or a matte off-white. Leave two to three inches of mat around a small print and three to four around a large one, in a cream or off-white that is close to the paper. Hang the centre of the piece about 57 to 60 inches from the floor, or six to eight inches above the back of the furniture beneath it.

The rest is detail. The detail is where a verse stops looking like signage and starts looking like art.

Frame colour. Scripture prints on a cream ground, with washes of sand, taupe, umber and sage, want a frame that has warmth in it. White oak, ash and maple are the safest choices in a light modern room. A pale walnut works where the floors or furniture are darker. Keep the profile narrow, half an inch to an inch, and keep the finish matte. Gloss reflects the room back at you, and ornate gold is the single fastest way to make a verse look like a gift-shop plaque. Thin black can work beside black window frames or black hardware, but it hardens the edges of a soft piece, so use it where the room is already doing the same thing. One thing to avoid: a bright white frame next to a cream print makes the paper look grey. Choose a soft bone or off-white instead.

Mat width. The mat does most of the quiet work. It gives the eye somewhere to rest before it reaches the picture, and it gives the reference line at the bottom of the print room to be read. Go generous. On common small sizes, around eight by ten or eleven by fourteen inches, two to three inches of mat is right. On sixteen by twenty inches and up, three to four. Keep the mat close to the colour of the paper, cream or warm off-white, with no coloured inner border and no gold line. If you are having the mat cut, ask for it bottom-weighted: about half an inch more at the bottom than at the sides. It makes the reference sit as though it was always meant to be there.

Size by room. Measure first, then choose. A rough guide for the walls these pieces usually go on:

• Hallway above a shoe bench: one framed print, eleven by fourteen or sixteen by twenty.
• Nursery above a dresser: sixteen by twenty, or two elevens by fourteen side by side.
• Kitchen beside the clock: small, eight by ten, where it can be read while the coffee brews.
• Living room above a sofa: one large piece or a pair, filling about two thirds of the sofa's width.

Hanging a set. Two or three prints from the same visual family will hang as one piece if you keep everything else the same: same frame, same mat width, same orientation. Leave two to three inches between frames, more only if the wall is very wide. Lay the group out on the floor until the spacing looks right, then cut paper templates and tape them up before a single nail goes in. Align the centres of a row at the same height, not the tops, and hang that centre line at 57 to 60 inches from the floor. Above furniture, drop the group so its lowest edge sits six to eight inches above the back of the sofa or bench.

Glass and light. Choose non-glare or matte glazing for a hallway or any wall facing a window. A cream print has little contrast to lose and a lot of reflection to gain, and glare is what makes a framed verse unreadable from across the room. Keep the piece off a wall in direct afternoon sun where you can.