how much sq. ft. would work?

[pollyann]

If we want to open a gallery and frame shop with enough space to hold art openings featuring local artists and 2x a year feature the highschool art students what would you suggest? The frame shop for sale is not big enough for anything other than custom framing. There is not enough wall space to actually feature artists or floor space to display 3-dimensional art at the current location.

Pauline

[WizSteve]

The shop I work at now on Saturdays is certainly one of the smaller ones - about 1200 sqft, 700 of which goes to the gallery and the POS counter. It's more rectangle than square, so we get a fair amount of wall space, and we have some nice partitions that increases the gallery surface area. We display about 2- 3 dozen good sized (40x30ish) framed pictures, and have a decent selection of gift items and art glass.

My favorite layout is still from the old Great Frame Up I worked at, which turned the gallery area into a big "U" and put the shop area in the middle - much more room for display, but you can't do that in a narrow space like we have now.

That said, while 700 sqft for a gallery is bearable, 500 sqft for the shop space (including the employee-only bathroom) is rather cramped.

[Bob Doyle]

How much can you get? How much can you afford? How much do you want? These are ?s you need to figure out! I had 550 sqft, too little, increased to 1100. Felt good, back down to 680, little small.

(decrease due to sale of building, not completely by choice!)

How much do you have at your BB job? How much does your husband have at his shop?

Good luck, and glad you found the Grumble!

[ERIC]

Right now I have 1900 sq ft on two floors.

The gallery is 900 on main floor and the workshop is 1000 in the basement. I love it (other than the stairs!) Both parts are used well, and yet allow for growth and storage.

For openings and events, I have had 50 people (and a string quartet) in the gallery at one time and it was comfortable.

I am paying 2,200 a month for the space.

[Cliff Wilson]

Whatever you get, you'll want more.

I have 1645 sq ft and wish I had another 500!

My gallery and design space is 825 sq ft. It's adequate.

I wanted to shrink the workroom and enlarge the gallery, but there were fire extinguisher issues. I would like 1000 in the front and 1000 in the back.

[Maria Nucci Designs]

Wiz Steve...love that idea of creating a workspace in the middle and using ALL the wall space.

Not only do you get the exterior walls, you get the interior walls from the workroom for display.
Know what I mean?

But it might feel a little claustophobic. (SP?)

I have 1200 square feet, about 700 showroom and 500 workroom
Although small, we have 12 foot ceilings...people walk in and always say we have great space.

It's all artistic. What you don't have in footage, can you make up in height?

Our beautifully crafted maple design tables with stainless steel tops are on wheels so we can change the look/proportions of the place if we need to.

(Sorry, bragging.)