There is only one frame shop in San Francisco that would build a frame like this.
Custom picture framing in San Francisco means knowing when to follow the rules and when to set them aside. This project called for something we do not often get to do: cut every element of the frame at a non-standard angle to match the natural uphill lean of the painting itself.
The painting
The subject is City Lights Bookstore, the North Beach landmark that has been part of San Francisco’s literary identity since Lawrence Ferlinghetti opened its doors in 1953. The Beat Generation read here. Ginsberg, Kerouac, Ferlinghetti himself. This is a place that has mattered to the city for over seventy years.
The painting captures something true about the building. City Lights sits on Columbus Avenue where the street rises, and the storefront leans into that hill. The artist painted it exactly as it looks, on an angle.
A square frame on this painting would have looked wrong. So we did not use one.
The framing: every cut off 90 degrees
This is the part that takes experience. We cut the frame corners, the mat, and the glass all at a matching angle so the frame follows the lean of the building in the painting.
The result is a frame with no right angles. Everything tilts slightly, as if the frame itself is part of the hill. It is not a trick or an effect. It is the frame doing its job, holding the painting the way the painting asks to be held.
For the frame, we chose a beaded black moulding. The detail in the beading gives the frame texture and weight without competing with the colors in the painting. For the mat, a clean white field with a green inner border accent that pulls a color already present in the storefront signage. The design ties the whole piece together without announcing itself.
Why this works at Underglass
We have been doing custom picture framing in San Francisco for over 40 years. Most of that work is standard. Some of it is not. The angled cuts on this frame require the kind of precision that comes from experience. Any drift in the angle shows, because every element has to match the next.
This is the kind of project that does not go to a big box frame shop. It comes to us.
Bring us your art
If you have a painting, a print, a photograph, or something that has been waiting for the right frame, come in to our Castro shop and we will work with you to find the framing it deserves.
📍 Visit our Castro frame shop 📞 Call us 📧 Email us your artwork 💻 Request a quote
Underglass Custom Picture Framing · Castro District · San Francisco Custom design · Conservation framing · Open 7 days