Do you love the idea of an antique style picture frame wrapped around your Samsung Frame TV – but when you go to buy one you see the only ones on the market cost almost as much as the TV itself and then almost scrap the idea all together? Well this post goes into how you can build your own vintage style frame for your Frame TV for under $100!
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One Room Challenge
If you haven’t heard of the The One Room Challenge® before – its purpose is to encourage and support each other in finishing a room. The spirit of the ORC is solely to celebrate interior design in a positive, supportive environment. The ORC is not a competition, but rather a celebration of creativity, inspiration, and original ideas.
Over 8 weeks, I’ll be a guest participant in the One Room Challenge & you will be able to following along with me every step of the way as I transform an extra bedroom into a multipurpose retreat for my husband, Garrett.
See my previous ORC post here:
Frame TV
The vision for this room is to be an office, a gym, a lounge & a guest room. We strongly felt that the space needed a TV for each one of it’s functions, and based on our furniture placement, this would be the best corner to place it in. We currently love the Frame TV in our living room, and the fact that when it’s in Art Mode it looks just like a painting, instead of a TV. The sale price, paired with my husband’s work discount & rewards points made it too good of a deal to pass up getting this 43″ 2021 Frame TV. It also came with a complimentary brown bezel too.
In case your wondering – Samsung uses “Frame” as the name of the TV, and the decorative object that you can wrap around the TV is referred to as a Bezel. The TVs typically do not come with a bezel, but we received one as part of a special promo. Here’s a photo of our Frame TV turned completely off, as it comes normally, as well as paired with the complimentary brown bezel, which is nice, but could be better.
As we wanted to do a gallery wall featuring gold picture frames in the room – an ornate and vintage style gold frame for the TV was going to be the perfect compliment to the space – but when I went online to buy one premade I saw that there’s really only one company that makes them, and the price tag is more than what I spent on the TV! Since a decorative frame was out of budget, I decided to recreate my own version for less.
DIY Bezel
For this tutorial, I won’t be giving cut by cut directions with measurements, but will instead focus on the steps that you can follow to create your own vintage style frame that will work for you regardless of what size or model of Samsung Frame TV you have.
The Samsung Bezels have a fairly simple design that consists of four mitered pieces of plastic that cover a portion of the front of the TV, as well as the entire side profile of the TV. They also attach magnetically so that you can just pop them on & off easily. This allows you to swap them out with ease, and doesn’t leave any damage your TV.
Many of the online tutorials that I came across teach you how to build a frame that is not removable, requires major power tools, and could very easily scratch the outside of the TV.
For this DIY I wanted to create a frame that functioned the exact same way as the ones from the manufacturer.
Tools & Materials
Since I don’t currently own any heavy duty power tools – this tutorial doesn’t require any and only utilizes square shaped wooden dowels, a decorative piece of wood trim, glue, magnets & is finished with a coat of gold Rub ‘n Buff.
If you do own power tools, you can easily modify these instructions to use a single piece of wood that’s measured and cut to fit perfectly behind the decorative trim rather than the dowels. For my use case I also preferred the dowels because they felt lighter than some of the other wood options I looked at which would make it easier for the magnets to hold.
What I Purchased
(2) Ornamental Mouldings 2-1/4-in x 8-ft White Hard Unfinished Chair Rail Moulding $32
(6) Madison Mill 0.75-in dia x 36-in L Square Poplar Dowel $24
(2) The Magnet Source Super Neodymium Disc Magnets, 10ct. $14
The Magnets I wish I used: The Magnet Source Super Neodymium Disc Magnets, 6ct
Project Source Miter Box with Saw Set $11
Rub ‘n Buff® Wax Metallic Finish – Gold Leaf $7
Gorilla Super Glue Tubes 2-Pack 3-gram Super Glue $5
Total Spend: $93
What I Had
CRAFTSMAN HI-VIS 25-ft Tape Measure
Gorilla Wood Glue Off-White Interior/Exterior Wood Adhesive (Actual Net Contents: 8-fl oz)
Gator Multi-grade-Grit Sheet Sandpaper 3.667-in W x 9-in L 5-Pack
ScotchBlue Original Multi-Surface 1.88-in x 60-yd Painters Tape
Acetone
Paper
Pencil
Eyeshadow Brush or Paint Brush
How I Assembled My Frame
While my bezel functions, and looks great, after building it, I realized there was a much easier way to assemble it. I essentially built my frame from the outside, starting with the front trim which sits against the front of the TV, then the exterior edges and finished with the wooden pegs & magnets that connect to the side of the TV. It would have been so much easier to start from the magnets and build the frame outwards towards the edges.
The core components of using a decorative piece of wood trim on the front, and then surrounding the TV with magnets & two dowels (instead of one full dowel and one set of dowel pieces), would be the same structure, but it would be much easier to build it in a different order.
Which is why you should follow these steps instead:
How You Should Build Your Frame
Step 1: Magnets
Start by placing your magnets on the TV. My 43″ frame TV required 20 magnets. I used these 8mm by 3mm Neodymium magnets, which were super strong. They worked well, but they make a slightly larger version that is 12mm by 3mm and comes in a 6 pack – these would be easier to work with, and should hold even better. Lining up the magnets correctly is a crucial part of the success of this project.
After you’ve plotted out where the magnets go, use some scrap paper between your TV & your magnets. This will protect the TV from super glue, (have some acetone on hand, in the case it does get on you or the TV) and will help you pull the magnets away from the TV easier.
Step 2: Wooden Dowel Inner Frame
If you are using 36″ dowels, like I did, and your TV is wider, you’ll need to glue two of them together for the top & bottom portions, which won’t be very visible once completed. I opted to place the seam of the dowel in line with where the cut out for the bottom sensor would be (more on that later).
With your paper & magnets in place on the top row – place a drop of super glue on the top row of magnets and apply the wood dowel so that the front of the dowel sits flush with the front of the TV – do not overlap the front of the TV. Press firmly & wait until they are fully dried to remove the dowel & set aside.
Please note there is a sensor on the bottom right side of the Frame TV that protrudes out slightly more than the depth of the magnets. I accommodated for this by using three pieces of dowels on the bottom. I used two normal dowels, and cut a segment of dowel in half lengthwise, and then glued it between the two.
If you’re not comfortable taking the easy route of rotating your TV on all sides so that you can apply the glue from above the magnets, and then place the dowel on top of them to dry – you can leave the TV in it’s normal position and make a guide using painters tape. Apply the painters tape to the edge of the TV, use a pencil to mark where each of the magnets lands, and where the edges of the TV are. Then transfer this to the dowel to see where to apply the magnets & glue for the remaining three pieces.
Superglue the magnets to the remaining three dowels, making sure that they are all still oriented in the correct direction to attract to the TV & let dry.
Magnetically attach the top dowel to the TV. Using a pencil, mark where to place your 45 degree miter cuts on both sides. This diagonal line should run directly through the corner of your TV. Remove dowel & repeat with other three sides.
Double check your measurements & the two sides against one another to make sure they are all even & symmetrical. Then using your miter saw, make the 45 degree cuts into the dowels.
At this point you should have the inner magnetic base structure of your frame completed, and they should all sit flush together around your TV.
Step 3: Front Piece of Decorative Trim
The next step is adding your decorative trim piece which is the front view of the bezel. For my frame I kept it to a single piece of ornate chair rail that was 2.25″ wide. You can select whatever type or width of trim you’d like to compliment your style, as the design choice won’t affect the rest of the directions. I made sure to select a piece of trim that was flat on both of the skinny sides, so that they would sit flush with the dowel, and appear like a gallery frame with a flat edge from the side.
With the magnetic dowels attached to the TV, you now need to measure from the inner side of the wood dowel to the inner edge of the TV’s built in boarder. You want the wood trim to cover the TV’s built in border, without obstructing the screen. Measure the remaining three sides.
Remove the magnetic dowels from the TV. With your decorative trim face down, place the magnetic dowel on top of the trim at the specified distance noted above. Now make the marks for your miter cuts. They should line up with the cuts from the dowel.
Cut the ornate trim to size using the miter saw.
Now that you have the four decorative frame pieces cut, you’ll want to lay them flat and line up the edges to make the frame. As I used a miter box, and cut these pieces by hand, I expected the cuts to not be completely perfect, so I looked at how they lined up and sandpapered some of the edges to make them sit more flush. Once they line up neatly, you can flip them over and use wood glue to attach the decorative piece to it’s corresponding dowel at your specified height. Let dry.
Now you can flip over your pieces and measure the outer perimeter. Cut a new dowel to line up with the outside edge of your ornate piece of wood. If you used a piece of trim larger than what I used, the dowels will not touch. Then glue them together. If there are gaps between the wood, you can fill with wood filler & sandpaper them down so that you have nice clean smooth edges.
Step 4: Make it Gold
Hooray the hard part is over! You have a fully functioning ornate frame that’s almost complete! The last step is to apply Rub ‘n Buff on the front and sides of the frame. I used the color gold leaf, and applied it using an old eyeshadow brush, but there are other methods to apply it such as just squeezing a small amount on your finger, gently rubbing it onto your surface, then using a soft cloth to buff to a shine. I purchased a 15 ml bottle of Rub ‘n Buff for this project, and still had about 15% of it left over. Let dry.
Step 5: Attach to TV & Enjoy!
Once the frame is fully dry you can magnetically attach it to your TV. Once attached, you can very carefully adjust the corners as needed to have the mitered edges sit more flush. Now you can sit back & enjoy your beautiful, hand made decorative frame!
The Result:
We love how it turned out! It adds so much charm to our room, and really makes the TV feel even more like a piece of art. The magnetic attachment is very gratifying, and the miter cuts actually sit together very flush, so you’d never realize that the pieces are all separate based on looking at it.
Our TV is one inch wide (the older versions are just under 2″ wide), and we used 3/4 inch wood for the side profile of the frame, which ended up still looking wonderful. It leaves just enough space to run the TV’s cord behind it, and still sits close enough to the wall to look natural.
I will say that the only negative about this frame design is that because the frame covers the sensor, which detects light and motion in the room, we did have to adjust the brightness on Art Mode, we also set the art mode to turn off based on a timer, instead of by light or the inactivity of motion. I could theoretically remove that one small piece of wood by the sensor, to get those capabilities back. I decided not to because the finished look on the bottom of the frame, outweighed the very small sacrifice of losing those features. Everything else about the TV functions perfectly with our DIY frame!
The best part about it is that it looks almost as good as the $500 version, but cost me less than $100 & can be completed in a single day!
If you end up making a frame for your tv with this tutorial, be sure to use #HousewifeHospitality and follow me @HousewifeHospitality on Instagram as I continue working on this room as part of the One Room Challenge! I’ve still got a few more additions coming into the space before the big reveal next week!
