From the seventeenth century frames were mostly carved from wood and then either water or oil-gilded (or both, in some cases). Water-gilding is a labour intensive process that can give a polished or matt finish, while oil-gilding usually gives a more matt appearance.  Oil-gilding not only requires considerably less preparation, but can also be used to gild substrates other than wood.

The process of water-gilding involves a lot of preparation.  First, layers of gesso (a mixture of dilute animal glue and chalk) are applied to the wood, to give a smooth surface. It can be applied thinly, to let the detail in the carving come through, or more thickly, to allow detail to be carved into the gesso. Next, a coloured bole and glue mixture is applied,  to give the gold leaf depth of colour and a surface to bond to. The animal glue in the layers of gesso and bole is re-activated with water, enabling the gold to adhere to the surface as it dries, and is either left matt or burnished with an agate stone. Alternatively, oil-gilding can be done straight onto a lightly or unprepared surface with the gold applied with an oil based adhesive, known as oil size.

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century a material known as composition, or compo, came into common use. Like many of these traditional materials, there is no single recipe for compo, but it is generally made from animal glue, chalk, linseed oil, and rosin. Compo can be easily press-moulded into a desired shape of ornament and then applied to the frame, allowing intricate detail to be made quickly and simply. However, compo does not stand the test of time very well and shrinks, causing extensive cracking that may result in the ornament breaking.