My recent purchase (it is awesome by the way, I absolutely love it) arrived a couple of days ago (after a long and expensive wait at the customs), so it's a good occasion to post a step by step about how I do a quality framing at home.
Here are the tools that I use:
Metal rulers, masking tape, olfa mat cutter, olfa knife, Filmoplast P90 plus tape, pencil, rubber, nails, plier
And I forgot to add these to the picture:
Henzo photo splits, 100% acid free board, decorative matboard, greyboard, art ready frame, anti glare glass
So the first step is to buy an art ready frame (for example in IKEA). Ususally these frames come with a glass or plexi. I prefer anti-glare glass, so I asked a framer friend of mine to cut one for me. Musem quality glass (100% UV protection) is also a possibility, but it is really expensive and an art conservator friend of mine told me, that in a home environment it is unnecessary. Just don’t hang the art in direct sunglight, opposite the window, or above heat. The best place is a darker wall of the room. The more important thing is that only 100% acid free paper get in contact with the art. So next, I measure the inside of the frame, and cut two 100% acid free boards (usually these are called "museum rag"). One of them is going to be the backing board of the art, the other the inner mat. After it, I measure the image area of the art, and draw it on one of the boards. Then I cut the window with a mat cutter. It's very easy to slip, and the whole board is ruined, so I have to be careful.

This mat going to be the inner one. For the outer mat, I use decorative matboard, in this case, a plush coated one. (Museum quality matboards are not so decorative, only white and its shades are available). I prefer when 0.5-1 cm (0.2”-0.4”) inner mat is visible, so I measure a bit bigger window than before, and cut the outer mat. When the cutting is ready, I stick together the inner and outer mat with henzo photo splits (the spilts are sticky on both sides).

The next step is hanging the art on the backing board. The best way is to use the so-called „T-hinge” method. It's very important to use only 100% acid free tape. Never, ever use cellotape, masking tape, etc. becuse those are very hamrful for an original art. Over time, the tapes will leak their residue into the paper, and it's very hard and expensive to restore it. I always use Filmoplast P90 Plus. This tape is specially designed for hanging art. 100% acid free, won’t harm the paper and removable. So I make the T-hinges (two on the top of the art).

I position the art in the frame and if everything looks good, put a greyboard in the back of the frame as a final backing. Then I push nails around it, they secure everything in the frame. Finally I apply masking tape around the back (it keeps the dust and bugs out).

The art is ready to hang
