Here at Frame It Easy, all our frames come with an acrylic cover whether it has a clear or non-glare finish. Our glass-alternatives covers look and act like glass, but are safe and easy to ship. While acrylic picture frame covers have many advantages — lightweight, shatterproof, less risky — they, along with most things in life, need to be well taken care of to keep their quality.
Though an easy & minimal task, taking care of your frame and its cover is important to ensure the life of your product. The artwork inside your frame is obviously important to you, that’s why you had it framed! So we’re sharing with you some tips and tricks to make sure your frame is getting the cleaning it deserves!
Receiving Your Frame
If you have chosen to print your photo from our site, you will receive your frame ready-to-hang, with the photo mounted and the hanging hardware attached (all you need is a hammer). You will notice that on the outside of the frame is a protective cover on the outside of your frame. This is just so there is no scratching involved during shipping. Once you remove this protective cover, you will reveal your beautiful frame that is ready to be hung!
If you are framing a print, puzzle, or piece of artwork you already have on hand, there will be a few extra assembly steps. You will notice we included two protective covers in this case, one on the inside of your acrylic and one on the outside. You will have to open your frame to insert your art and turn your matboards over if you ordered them, so just make sure to remove the protective cover from both sides before putting your frame back together.
Note: the protective cover you receive might vary slightly from the picture above, but all frames do include a protective cover!
Use a Microfiber Cloth
When cleaning the frame, it’s always good to do so as gently as possible. At the end of the day, frames are meant to keep their contents safe and secure. So a frame is usually more replaceable than the photo it holds. Still, you likely want to keep the frame itself clean and presentable — to make sure its contents shine through in the best possible way.
The best way to keep dust and other unwanted particles off your frame is with a microfiber cloth. They’re soft, so they won’t leave scratches or blemishes on your frame, which would hurt your overall display. You can purchase microfiber cloths at most grocery or department stores, but you can also purchase them online from sites such as Amazon.
Add Some Water, If Needed
Of course, sometimes a microfiber cloth alone doesn’t quite do the trick. If you have something more than just dust, try adding a bit of water to go with the microfiber cloth, still being gentle, of course. It’s important to emphasize, too, that we don’t recommend putting water directly on the frame — rather, just on the cloth. This would prevent getting an excessive amount of water on the frame itself, which might cause a bigger issue than the one you were trying to remedy.
Scratched Metal Frame? Use Some Toothpaste!
Believe it or not, toothpaste can be a great tool in getting your frame looking the best it possibly can — especially if it has a minor scratch on it. Again, you don’t want to add toothpaste directly to the frame, but you can add some to the water-based solution that you’re using to maintain your frame.
A trace amount, along with a similar quantity of water, and your frame can be looking good as new pretty quickly.
Avoid Ammonia
The toothpaste solution, however, only really works on metal frame rails. If you have dust on your acrylic, the microfiber cloth (and maybe some water) should be able to do the trick. There are other brands of acrylic cleaner that will work, but we should establish the type to avoid: brands that contain ammonia, such as Windex. It’s how you could do irreparable damage to your frame.
With that being said, if you do want to use a more “heavy” cleaner on your acrylic cover for things like fingerprints, Castille soap, and or even baby shampoo should work just fine. These are tough enough cleaners to remove the stains but won’t damage your frame.
Avoid “Dust Prone” Spaces
It’s no secret: electronic screens, such as televisions or computers, attract dust! If you don’t want frames to collect dust by proxy, we wouldn’t recommend placing them (too) close to your television sets or computers.
Of course, if you don’t mind dusting things off more than usual, feel free to go ahead and place them near your household electronics, it won’t ruin your frame!
Keeping a Clean Image
It’s always great to have your frame looking the best it possibly can. A big part of this is keeping it clean. Just remember a few of these steps, though, and your frame will always look great:
- Microfiber cloths should get a vast majority of dust and grime off.
- A little bit of water added to the microfiber cloth should get the more stubborn bits off.
- For the most stubborn pieces of debris, a little soapy water will likely do the trick– just be sure to avoid soaps with ammonia.
- Keep your frames away from statically-charged devices, such as TV screens.
If you have any other questions about caring for your frame, feel free to reach out to us. We definitely want to help you out the best we possibly can!
