This “Melting Frame” DIY Will Jazz Up Your Gallery Wall in a Big Way

published Apr 27, 2023

Page URL

We independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices were accurate at the time of publishing.

A gallery wall in a sunny bungalow's dining room — Credit: Marisa Vitale

Although you can find a variety of fun and funky frames at thrift and antique stores, you may feel like your gallery wall is still missing something. And if that something is movement and curved lines, then you’re going to love this DIY that uses flexible wall molding to create a “melting” picture frame.

TikTok user Emily Shaw (@emilyrayna) posted a video to her account in February showing how she made her frame. “Let’s make a melting picture frame because I’ve been wanting one for a while and I’ve been looking around but I don’t think they exist,” she said.

The main ingredient you’ll need for this decor recipe is a roll of flexible molding. Although your local hardware store may have some in stock, you’ll find a wider selection of flexible molding online. This roll from Amazon looks most like the molding Shaw used for her DIY.

And you’ll also need something to attach the sticky side of the molding to and act as a backing. Shaw used a piece of cardboard, but you could use foam core board or even a piece of thin wood if you’re handy with a jigsaw because you’ll be cutting away any excess backing from around the frame.

Shaw then spray-painted her frame gold and decided to use a sheet of clear vinyl to act as the glass in her frame, but admits that glass or acrylic plexiglass would probably work better.

Finally, trace the frame on a piece of uncut mat or poster board to create a custom matting for whatever piece of art you’ll be putting inside. Or, you can choose to leave your art unmatted and cut it down to fit the shape of the frame.

Shaw came back to TikTok to share an updated version of this DIY that uses a large framed print from Target as the foundation (make sure the print is behind plastic and not glass). You can then use the backing of the original art print as the backing for your frame.

This method may be a bit more expensive, but you can often find framed prints like the one Shaw used at the thrift store.

Either way you choose to complete this project, you’ll end up with funky frames that will make your gallery wall super groovy.