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Shipping Art | How to Pack and Ship Paintings

Whether for an art gallery or museum, a collector, or a personal gift, shipping art requires thoughtful handling to ensure it arrives at its destination. 

In this step-by-step guide, I'll walk you through how to pack and ship small to medium size paintings.

Packing Materials Needed

Below is a summary of the materials that I typically use:​​​​

- Lint-free cloth (available here)   

- Palette wrap (available here)  

- Bubble wrap (available here)  

- Packing tape (available here)  

- Scissors (available here)

- Home Depot picture boxes (available here

- Rigid foam board insulation (available here)

- Banker’s boxes (available here)  

- 4-piece custom fit boxes (available here)  

- Uline art boxes (available here

- Uline padded art boxes (available here

- AirFloat Strong Boxes (available here

- Ook Picture Hangers 20 lbs (available here)  

- Ook Picture Hangers 50 lbs (available here)  

- Thank You cards (available here)  

- Fragile stickers (available here)  

Step 1: Remove Dust

The first thing that I recommend doing is wiping down the sides of the frame and the painting itself with a dry lint-free cloth. This removes any dust and hairs.

Artist Nikita Coulombe wipes down her painting with a lint-free cloth to remove dust and hairs.

Step 2: Enclose the Painting in Palette Wrap

The next step is to cover your painting with palette wrap. This helps protect your painting from scratches and elements such as dirt or moisture that might impact the box during transit.

Artist Nikita Coulombe demonstrates how to encircle a painting with palette wrap.

Step 3: Wrap Painting Again with Bubble Wrap

To add another layer of protection, wrap your painting again with bubble wrap. Later, you will use packing tape to secure the painting in the box and this extra layer provides a buffer between the painting, the tape, and the box.

A painting is enclosed with bubble wrap after being wrapped with palette wrap.

Step 4: Find the Right Box

The easiest and most eco-friendly way to pack paintings is to re-use old frame boxes, which allow paintings to "float" inside of the box without touching any of the edges of the box. 

Example of a frame box.

Use packing tape to secure the cut-outs against the painting.

A painting is packed inside of a frame box, with cardboard cut-outs on the side hugging the painting in place.

I like to add another layer of cardboard on top of the painting so there are two layers of cardboard surrounding the entire painting.

An extra layer of cardboard fitted to the box is added on top of the packed painting.

There are similar picture moving boxes at Home Depot that have an interior box that can be adjusted to accommodate paintings with landscape dimensions. Your box should be slightly larger than the painting, allowing for padding on all sides.

An image of home depot picture moving boxes.

For larger paintings, I recommend sandwiching the piece (after wrapping it with palette wrap and bubble wrap) between sheets of rigid foam board, which both protects the painting and reinforces the structure of the box. 

Cut the foam board with an extra 2-3 inches on all sides of the painting and secure the painting with packing tape in the center of the board. This mimics the floating effect that the frame box offers. Then, put another piece of foam board of the same size on the other side of the painting and tape the foam boards together. Then, slide the sandwiched painting into the box.

Rigid foam board sheets.

If your painting is especially fragile or has glass in front of it, you might consider using a deluxe padded art shipping box, which gently cushions the painting. The heavy-duty plastic lining on the inside of the cardboard acts as a lightweight puncture guard against anything that might bump the outside of the box.

AirFloat Strong Box example.

Step 5: Add Any Extras and Tape the Box Shut

Once you've packed your painting, attach any extras you'd like - such as a Thank You card and picture hangers - to the outside of the second layer of cardboard or foam board and then tape the box shut. Add a Fragile sticker to each side of the box to alert handlers to take special care.

A Thank You card and Ook 20 lb and 50 lb picture hangers are shown.
A taped box with a Fragile sticker on it.

Step 6: Ship Your Painting

My preferred shipping carrier is FedEx, both for domestic and international art shipping. In general, it's easy to get quotes and updates from them regarding a package's location.

I always get insurance on paintings and require at least an indirect signature. I also include a copy of the shipping information inside of the box in case anything happens to the label on the outside of the box.

 

Visit FedEx's website to explore shipping options here.

Access their international shipping guide here.

An example of shipping quotes from FedEx.

I hope all goes well with packing and shipping your painting!

Check out more of my articles here and see more demos on my YouTube channel.
 

Note: this page contains affiliate links. If you decide to make a purchase through one of these links, I will make a small commission. There is no additional cost to you and your purchase supports the creation of more articles and videos.

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