London / For the framing bench
The spare canvas and the edge are settled in your quote, before painting starts.
A tray frame can leave the canvas edge in view, and hand stretching needs spare canvas to pull around the bars. Those calls belong to whoever stretches and frames the work. For a London workshop or frame shop, that is your own bench. For a gallery, it may be the framer you use for your walls and your interior clients.
PaletteMomento is a hand-painting studio in Dafen Art Village, Shenzhen, China, supplying trade buyers worldwide. One painter paints each canvas on premium linen, with no printed base. Orders start at one painting. Each canvas gets its own priced line on your quote, sized in the unit your bench uses. Before any painting ships to London, you see daylight photos of every finished canvas and approve them.
Our fastest way to discuss your schedule and price. The written quote follows by email for your records.
WhatsApp: usually an immediate reply.
Email: usually within 12 hours. Monday–Sunday.
support@palettemomento.comOr send your schedule and images through our quote form.
01 / Set it at the bench
Two London sources, checked in September 2026, give figures for the edge, the spare canvas and the bracing. The right column is what we need to hear from you before painting starts.
| At your bench | What a London source says (September 2026) | Tell us before painting |
|---|---|---|
| Tray (floater) frame | One central London framer makes tray frames with a 5 to 10 mm gap around the canvas as standard. It can also allow wider gaps. Across a gap like that, the canvas edge may show. | The edge you need, such as the image carried around the side or a plain painted edge. We confirm in the quote what we can do. |
| Spare canvas | A London canvas and stretcher supplier advises artists who stretch their own canvas to plan about 10 cm of spare canvas on each side of the stretcher. | The spare canvas you want per side. Our standard rolled allowance is 5 cm per side, so ask for more before production if your bench needs it. |
| Braced bars | The same supplier, which also makes stretchers, recommends cross-bars when any side is over 1 m. It gives 36 inches, about 91 cm, as its inch figure. | The final stretched size, so you can order the bars and any cross-bar to match. |
So every canvas needs three answers before the first marks go on: its image size, its spare canvas per side and its edge. If you run the bench yourself, these are your own notes. If your gallery uses an outside framer, ask them first, so the canvas is painted for their frame.
Our guide for framers and frame shops explains image size and total canvas size in more detail.
02 / Read the stretching terms
One London framer says galleries and collectors often bring in paintings that traveled rolled. It builds each stretcher to the exact size, allowing for the condition of the paint and whether the image is square. The stretched canvas can then hang as it is or go into a tray frame.
Stretching carries its own risk, though, and someone has to hold it. Some London framers state in their terms that canvas stretching is done at the owner’s risk. Ask your framer about those terms before you choose between rolled and stretched delivery.
We quote rolled, stretched and framed as separate options, so you can compare the ones that suit each canvas.
Our own photographs: a canvas during painting, and a packing case.
If your own bench, or your framer, takes rolled work on terms you accept, order rolled with the spare canvas you need. If not, order the piece stretched or framed from us. A stretched canvas then only needs its tray frame at your bench, if you want one.
03 / Order the bars
We paint to the width and height you give us, in inches or centimeters. You set that size when you order, so the bars can be planned early.
Custom stretcher bars from a London maker can take up to two or three working weeks. Your approval of the daylight photos comes before anything ships, so it is a good moment to order the bars. There is no need to wait for the delivery. Local framing then adds its own time after the canvas arrives. If a date is tight, ask your framer whether a faster service is available. You can also see how one painter takes each canvas from sketch to finish.
04 / Plan around the fairs
Between October 2026 and May 2027, several London art fairs and one annual oil exhibition fall on set dates. The Affordable Art Fair takes original work by living artists, or small editions, and no reproductions. Its rules do not mention studio-painted canvases, so ask the organizer before you plan one for a stand. This list is for planning the canvases on your own walls and for your interior clients.
The two October fairs fall a week apart. When a date is only weeks away, the bars and the framing at your end may not fit before it. For a date like that, we suggest asking about stretched or framed canvases, which skip the wait for bars at your bench.
The late November show at Mall Galleries is the one date here built around oil painting. Acrylic is our standard, so if your clients ask for oil around then, mark those lines oil when you order.
Our guide for galleries and art dealers covers how to describe and reorder studio stock.
London dates, October 2026 to May 2027
05 / Your canvas list
Give us one line per canvas, in inches or centimeters, whichever your bench works in.
A gallery without its own bench can ask its framer for the spare canvas and edge. If the framer has not decided yet, tell us who frames your work, and we suggest rolled or stretched for each line.
06 / Bench limits
It depends on the framer: one central London framer says it can usually stretch canvases up to about 2.5 × 1.5 m in its own workshop. It prices larger museum stretchers on request. For a bigger piece, check with your framer before you choose rolled. Tell us the size, and we confirm in the quote whether it can travel stretched or framed.
At one central London framer, not for re-stretching. Its insurance cover of up to £1,000 per artwork on its premises excludes re-stretching, and its terms put all canvas stretching at the owner’s risk. Its terms also warn that re-stretching a canvas that was stretched before can cause tears, cracks or flaking paint. Ask your framer what its cover includes when it stretches a rolled canvas.
One London stretcher supplier’s standard profile has no cross-bars, but its branded and exhibition profiles take them from 36 in or 100 cm. If a canvas is over 1 m on any side, ask your framer which profile they plan before you order the bars.
Yes, we paint canvases for London framers at the inch size you give us, including 16 × 20 in and 24 × 36 in. One London framer’s guide lists 16 × 20 in as popular with beginners and 24 × 36 in as a common wall-art size. It also helps to ask your framer which bar and frame sizes they stock.
Yes, a London frame shop can order a single canvas, because orders start at one painting. We suggest testing it at the bar size you use most. Stretching it at your own bench shows whether the spare canvas and the fit suit your work before a bigger order. You can send that one line on WhatsApp, in inches or centimeters, and the written quote follows by email.
From approval to your bench
Once you approve the daylight photos, your framer can order the bars that same day. The wait for them then runs while the canvas is on its way to your bench.
Our fastest way to discuss your schedule and price. The written quote follows by email for your records.
WhatsApp: usually an immediate reply.
Email: usually within 12 hours. Monday–Sunday.
support@palettemomento.comOr send your schedule and images through our quote form.