best color for showing corner samples...

Julie-Tulie

MGF, Master Grumble Framer
Joined
Feb 15, 2005
Posts
797
Loc
Western Wisconsin
I am getting ready to chose the color that my frame corner samples will be up against in my new shop and I need some opinions. I sas planning on gray for my counter tops just because it is so neutral, but for the walls for my corner samples I was picturing a red, but am afraid it may be a bit over-powering...but bold. Any opinions? And also which give you the best velcro-stickability?
 
Julie- there are some great threads in the past about grumblers' shops, pics of design spaces, etc. Grey, black and beige seem pretty popular for the material behind the actual samples on the walls.

I used grey, b/c I got a good deal on a whole bunch of the material.
BUT, I have four different painted walls in my shop (one being a dark red)- I purposefully chose colors that ANY frame will look good on- and customers will bring the frame over and use my wall as a ref. for their own wall color, or something close. I did this crazy 4 color choice after I got tired of having the taupe be too bland, and the other color, a kind of green, making some frames hard to sell! I just like to hold things up off the design counter, and up against something for them to get a feel...

Grey countertops should work well, too.

No opinions on Velcro- I reinforce with glue, staples or more Velcro - some sample sets are bad about the Velcro coming off, others, no problems?

Hope any of this long winded reply is helpful- good luck!
 
Julie, I used a medium grey because the existing carpeting was that color. But I recently added some new space for corner samples and I got the black velcro carpet from my supplier. I have to say it is bee-you-ti-ful. The black makes all the samples really pop. Especially the golds and silvers. Plus, it wasn't anymore expensive than the outdoor carpet I already had up. Eventually, I want to replace it all with the black.

Here is what I know from experience......

I applied carpet glue directly to the wall and boy do I regret that. The newest wall space I covered 4x8 MDF panels with the carpet glue and added the velcro fabric. I then bolted the panels to the walls. I then framed the panels with picture framing moulding and it looks great. The moulding increases the price but it looks very nice and you can show off your mouldings that way.

The advantage to using the panels is you can unscrew them if you ever reconfigure your store. The carpeting I glued to the walls is gonna be a nightmare to remove.

If you decide on regular carpeting bring some corner samples with you to test the carpet to see if it will stick. Bring bigger samples that weigh more just to be sure. I think the best is the outdoor type carpet you can get at Home Depot if you are trying to save money. But, your color selection is very limited that way.

I'm sure I told you much more than you needed but I am feeling very chatty today since it is almost closing time....

Good luck with your project!
 
Thanks for the help and info. The black does sound really nice...what supplier did you get your velcro fabric from and is it called velcro fabric?
 
Hey Julie, welcome to The G. All of our walls are done in black which makes all of the mouldings show up well--even the black. Our first two walls were done in the felt fabric from Home Depot. Our samples are constantly falling off. The next two walls we did with the fabric from United ( www.unitedmfrs.com ). It is called Foam Backed Pile Material and is sold by the yard @ 57" wide No. 3225. Black, Camel, and Silver Gray are the available colors. It is a little pricey but was well worth it. Also, it helps to add a few extra strips of velcro on the heavier samples.
 
Julie, I got mine from a local supplier and it was just called Velcro fabric. I think it is the exact same stuff. I didn't recall it being pricey though. I'll find out on Monday how much they sell it for by the yard so you can compare. It was very easy to work with.
 
For our newest wall, we're doing the same with the black material from United, glued to plywood that was first screwed over the finished wall.

For the spinners we made a couple years ago, we used the dark blue material from United.

For the original walls, we used the same dark blue carpeting as the floor. Some states won't allow carpeting, because it can be a fire hazard, and I suspect they'll eventually tell us to remove it. (Since the tragic STATION fire in our state, there are all kinds of new laws and they're VERY strict)

In our shop, the frames look considerably better with the black background - and pop out at ya. I can take pictures to show the differences if you want.

Eventually, we plan to re-do the whole place with black.

Mike
 
Mike is mistaken on just one account. The spinners we made were covered in the Silver-Grey colored pile material from United. It's actually a pretty light grey. The original walls were carpeted in the same color we used for the floor and the original counter covering. That color is a dark blue-grey. Mike is right about one thing, though. The addition of the black material was the best move. We have one full size wall that was covered in black, and the difference is amazing. We have our brightly colored mouldings (Studio, AMPF, and Bella) hanging on that wall, and all I can say is WOW!

If you're worried black is goign to darken your store too much, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Once you have your samples up, you won't notice the black at all.
 
Originally posted by Emibub:
Julie, I got mine from a local supplier and it was just called Velcro fabric. I think it is the exact same stuff....
Kathy is correct in that you can also purchase Velcro Loop Fabric from distributors other than just framing suppliers, where you will find a much larger selection of colors available...

Velcro Loop Fabric colors

We chose Pewter to cover our Space Saver turnstyles in the picture below...

grumble_space_savers.jpg


Evald Moulding in Watertown, Wisconsin typically makes these covered in a light gray linen with a velcro hook strip down the center. I special ordered them raw and primed, then coverd them myself with the Velcro Loop fabric.

John
 
United prices are 9.80/yd for 1-10 yards; 9.35/yd for 11-25; 9.05 for 26-49 yds; and 8.80 for 50+ yds. We had to cover a lot of wall space so our total resulted in pricey, at least to our bank acct it did. John, I am drooling over the turnstyles; if I ever move, I will definitely go that route--I will never get the fabric off our walls anyway.
 
Thanks to you all,and John...those turnstyles ARE awesome! Are they 3 or 4 sided, they look like 3...what a spacesaver!
I am checking into the black...sounds very handsome and classy. I was concerned about the black mouldings showing up but it sounds like there will be no problem there.
 
Evald Moulding in Watertown, Wisconsin typically makes these covered in a light gray linen with a velcro hook strip down the center. I special ordered them raw and primed, then coverd them myself with the Velcro Loop fabric.

John

sorry to resurrect a really really old thread.

Do Evald still make these? and do you think they would ship to the United Kingdom if we really really wanted them?
 
Try this company.
www.jennisfabrics.com
1-877-95-ENNIS

It's called Display Fabric or Pressure Sensitive Fabric.

Ah, I was looking for the space saver system, we are refurbishing our front shop soon, and are looking for an innovative display system
 
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