Can I Laminate My Paintings, Prints, or Artwork?

Creating is no easy task. You can go through days and sometimes years of work, ideating, planning, and creating. And then it happens, tragedy strikes: your gorgeous new masterpiece falls victim to a spilled cup of coffee. Or perhaps it gets ripped by the family dog. Or maybe it gets riddled with creases and tears as you pass it to others to admire. No matter how it happens, your art is ruined and you have to start all over again. But it doesn’t have to be like this. You can laminate your creations and ensure that your work will stand the test of time without getting ruined. Keep reading to find out what lamination can do for you, and your art.

Why Should You Laminate Your Art?

The best reason to laminate your artwork is because it will protect it. Not just from the aforementioned spills and pet mishaps, but from the dangers of just existing. Sunlight can cause the colors in a piece to fade, your work can get smudged by fingerprints, and smoke and other odors can embed themselves into your work. When you laminate your artwork, you’re ensuring that your piece will still look great years from now.

If you’ve been trying to kick-start your artistic career either with a gallery showing, selling your prints, or even a gig with a trendy graphic design firm, lamination can make your work look more professional. By laminating your pieces, you’re showing that you care about how your work is presented. This adds a level of quality to your work that will help you stand out and make an impression. Plus, laminating can enhance the colors in your prints to appear more brilliant and can really make your art pop off the page.

It is a common misconception that lamination is expensive. You can have your documents laminated at a print shop instead of rushing out and buying a laminator. Or you can even buy self-sealing laminate that allows you to laminate at home without a laminator. Laminating can also be a lot cheaper than framing and it still protects your work just as well. If you are worried about hanging, make sure that there’s a little bit of excess laminate around the edges of the piece so that when you tack it to the wall, the pushpins won’t damage your work. Plus, if you send your work out to be framed, you might be waiting several days or weeks before you see it again. If you laminate your work yourself, you’ll retain control of your work, and it will always be with you.

Looking for a sturdier finish for your work? You can also use your laminator to apply mounting adhesive and mount your artwork onto rigid substrates like foam or plastic boards.

Tips for Laminating Paintings, Prints, and Artwork

• Use Cold aka Pressure-Sensitive Lamination Whenever Possible. Heated laminating can damage your work, so if your piece is delicate, is made with water-based ink or paint or you are otherwise concerned about gentle lamination, you should probably use a cold laminator to get the job done.


• Use UV Resistant Film. As mentioned above, the sun can quickly degrade your work and cause the colors to fade. For the best protection from the sun’s rays look for laminating film with UV resistance for the best long-term results.


• Find a Versatile Laminator. A lot can go into finding the best laminator for you. You can check out our other articles on things you should know as well as top brands but more than anything you are going to want to choose a machine that can handle all your work. Pouch laminators are more or less restricted to standard sizes so if you plan on ever deviating from standard photo and letter sizes a roll laminator is probably the best option. From there consider how big you think your projects could get and make sure you get a laminator that can accommodate them.

Creation can be a rough process, but it’s nowhere near as devastating as seeing your artwork get trashed. So start laminating your artwork as soon as possible.