Custom Wall Frames for Offices: Canvas, Wood, Acrylic or Metal

Which frame goes on which wall? A room by room guide to custom wall frames for UAE offices and shops, with sizes, mounting tips and realistic prices.

Walk into most offices in Dubai Internet City or along Sheikh Zayed Road and the walls are either bare or hung with whatever came free with the furniture. Custom wall frames fix that for less than one month of a meeting room's rent, but only when the frame type matches the room. This guide works room by room, reception, boardroom, corridor and shop floor, and says which of canvas prints, wooden photo frames, acrylic frames or metal frames belongs where, at what size and at what price.

We print and finish every piece in house in Ajman and deliver ready to hang across the seven emirates. Quotes come back on WhatsApp, usually the same day, and a single set of custom wall frames is a normal order.

Measure the wall before you choose custom wall frames

Two numbers decide everything: the clear wall width and the viewing distance. A frame should cover roughly 60 to 75 percent of the width of the furniture beneath it, so a 180 cm reception desk wants about 120 cm of framed artwork above it. For viewing distance, halve the distance in centimetres to get the shortest comfortable frame width. A corridor viewed from 150 cm suits 60 to 75 cm frames; a double height lobby viewed from 6 metres needs something closer to 2 metres wide, often built as a set of three.

Hang the centre of the artwork at 145 to 150 cm from the floor. Offices routinely hang too high because someone installed it while standing on a desk.

Four frame types compared

These are the four custom wall frames we make most often, with the rooms they suit and the prices we see on typical orders.

Type	Best room	Common sizes	Price guide
Canvas prints	Reception, lounge, cafe walls	40 x 60 to 120 x 180 cm	AED 180 to 950
Wooden photo frames	Boardroom, corridor galleries, awards wall	A4 to A1	AED 90 to 420
Acrylic frames	Showrooms, clinics, brand walls	30 x 40 to 100 x 150 cm	AED 260 to 1,400
Metal frames	Industrial offices, gyms, retail	40 x 40 to 120 x 120 cm	AED 320 to 1,600

Reception: canvas prints and acrylic

Reception is where the brand photograph, the founder quote or the skyline shot goes. Canvas prints suit this wall because they have no glass, so there is no glare from downlights and no reflection in visitor photos. Canvas printing in Dubai has become the default for reception walls for that reason. Ask for a 38 mm stretcher bar and a gallery wrap where the image continues around the edge; a thin 18 mm bar looks like a poster from the side.

If the reception already has a lit logo, keep the artwork calmer. Acrylic frames with the image face mounted behind 5 mm clear sheet give a deep gloss that matches reception signage in the same material. They weigh more than canvas, so the installer needs to find a stud or use heavy duty gypsum anchors. Custom wall frames in reception also need to survive being brushed by luggage and deliveries, which is another point for acrylic over glass.

Boardroom and corridors: wooden photo frames

Wooden photo frames are the right choice where there will be many frames in a row: a timeline of projects, team photographs, certificates. Repetition is what makes a corridor gallery look deliberate, so pick one profile, usually a 20 to 30 mm flat oak or walnut moulding, and one mat colour, then keep every frame the same size or two sizes at most.

Pair them with framed printed certificates and ISO documents in A4 and A3, hung in a grid with 8 to 10 cm gaps. A set of eight A3 frames in oak with white mats and the prints included typically costs AED 1,100 to 1,500. Personalised wooden photo frames with a laser engraved name on the bottom rail work well for long service awards and add about AED 40 each.

Retail and gym walls: metal frames and large graphics

Metal frames in black or brushed silver aluminium look sharp against concrete, exposed ceilings and gym mirrors. A thin 10 mm profile keeps attention on the image, and the frames are light enough to rehang when the display changes. For a seasonal shop wall it is cheaper to combine two or three metal frames with printed wall graphics around them than to frame everything.

Where you want the metal itself to be the art, cut aluminium shapes from our metal wall art range read as decor and branding at once. Indoors, freestanding acrylic letters on a painted wall achieve a similar effect for less. Custom wall frames in metal are also the easiest to clean in a gym, where sweat and chalk reach everything below two metres.

The budget option: posters and foam board

Not every wall deserves custom wall frames. Staff rooms, back offices and temporary pop up shops do fine with indoor posters printed on 200 gsm satin and dropped into standard A2 or A1 snap frames. Another route is mounting the print straight onto 5 mm foam board with a hidden block on the back. Both can be swapped each quarter for under AED 100 a piece. Our photo frames page lists the standard sizes we keep in stock.

Preparing artwork for custom wall frames

• Supply images at 150 dpi at final size. A 100 by 150 cm canvas needs a file around 6,000 by 9,000 pixels; a phone photo rarely survives that enlargement.
• Add 5 cm of bleed on every side for a gallery wrap so faces and logos do not fold around the edge.
• Keep logos out of the outer 10 percent of the image on any framed piece, because the frame lip and mat cover that band.
• Send fonts converted to outlines, and ask for a soft proof showing the frame colour against your wall paint.

Caring for custom wall frames in UAE conditions

Dust and air conditioning are the two enemies. Wipe acrylic with a microfibre cloth and water only; glass cleaner clouds it. Keep canvas prints away from direct afternoon sun through west facing glass, which fades inks within two summers. Wooden frames sit happily in offices but swell in a kitchenette, and the metal ones need nothing beyond a dusting. If a space is being redecorated, peel and reuse wall stickers rather than drilling fresh holes around the frames.

For a whole office fit out, one supplier handling custom wall frames, graphics and signs keeps the finishes consistent. Our signage team surveys sites in Dubai, Sharjah and Ajman and quotes everything from one visit. That visit can include desk name plates in the same finish as the frames, so the boardroom reads as one design rather than five suppliers.

Related resources: See our flyers & leaflets, marketing materials and event props pages for specifications, quantity pricing and design options across the UAE.