gallery/design area ideas

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Blueskies

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Joined
Sep 23, 2001
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Pass Christian, MS, USA
After renting for 7 years, my wife and I have finally found a place to call our own.

The existing two BR home will house the frame shop - a 1600 sq ft addition is going to be the gallery/art supply/frame design area.

Any ideas are welcome - from display systems for moulding samples to design table ideas.
We're in the beginning stages of planning so tell us what you would or would not do again if given the chance.

BTW how many husband and wife owners are on PFG?

Don
 
Spend the money and get the help of a professional designer. Whatever their fee is, it will be well worth it. Make sure your designer has experience in retail design, ask for references and go and look at the job that was done for them.
What I'm suggesting is what happens to us in our industry all the time. What is going to be a better framing job, the one they do themselves in order to save money or the one done by a professional custom picture framer? How much better is the professional job as opposed to the amateur one?

Think about it, and good luck,

John
 
I'm here and Mr. Fred is a lurker. If you ask him a question he may answer. His Username is MFred.

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Timberwoman
AL
I cut the mat, I pet the =^..^= cat.

[This message has been edited by ArtLady (edited October 14, 2001).]
 
Charles and I are a team at work and at home. Charles retired after 30 years with BellSouth and helps me about 15-20 hours each week. Of course during the upcoming holiday season he'll be in the shop as many hours as it takes.
 
Congrats on your new store!
My husband & I have built our place from scratch, and are STILL going at it after 10 years. It would have been nice to just get it over with already, but we do take pride in what we have accomplished.
I agree a decorator would be a great idea. At least for the planning part, if that is all you can afford. It is a long haul building everything yourself. Fortunately, my husband is a Union Carpenter, and has much of the know-how on these matters. But the labor is still a factor.
I didn't have much business in the beginning, so I had plenty of time to do all the sheetrocking, painting, trimming ...
Wishing you the best.
 
Blueskies,
Guess I didn't really answer your original question. JRB's got the very best idea for putting together a showroom, but alot of us are/were not able to afford that luxury. When we moved our home-based frameshop to a downtown (rent was affordable but lots of sweat equity kept the rent down)location, we knew improvements needed to be made in our much larger location. (But that's another long saga). My suggestion: go visit frameshops/galleries and talk to the owners. What mistakes and corrective ideas did they come up with? You'll have to do a lot more legwork but after your investigation ends, you can graph your mental design out on paper or computer and actually see how much space you're gonna have for display & design (wallspace, counterspace, window display, best lighting space/placement etc.) Then you'll have to do the very same thing for your actual frame shop workspace. And you know what? In the end, when you get all moved in and begin selling and framing from your new shop, you'll see a few changeable mistakes that you made and fix them during slower times.

I've had friends who hired designers for kitchens and remodelings that thought the layouts were incredible but once built and installed were not very correctible when some correction should arise.
 
Thanks for all the replies...I didn't mention that we are using an architect with a good bit of retail design experience.

I think my questions were too broad, so I'll narrow my focus to only one area. I'm looking for ideas on displaying corner samples and how to set up the "ideal" design table area.

We have two of the Nielson sample displays. I would like to consolidate the rest of our samples into one professional looking area. I've seen carpet covered doors on rollers, hinges, etc. Any references or advice on an efficient system would be great. We're still in the planning stages and trying to get ideas. I don't want a huge wall of samples. I'd rather "layer" them in a display that makes them easy to get to. I know that Jay Goltz says too many samples are overwhelming, but I'm a corner sample kind of guy. There is certainly a point where you can have too many, but I like to have a large choice - a lot of our customers like the choice. And they don't feel overwhelmed because we're there to help them decide what looks best. I'm going on about this....

Oh, the other thing....the design table. I'm thinking of building the design table from stock kitchen base cabinets set back to back and getting a laminated counter top with rolled edges from our local counter shop. Lots of storage and a clean looking work area too. Any color suggestions?

I'll slow down with the questions if this is proving to be too much!

Don
Blue Skies Gallery
 
A number of years ago I had a local counter shop make me 2 table tops with rolled edges and slightly curved ends. They are 48" wide by 66" long. The 2 tops are part of a table 14 feet long with a middle section a little lower where the computer and mat corner samples live. The counter tops are a light neutral gray which doesn't confuse colors. We use a color checker to check the lighting on the table surface and keep it just a touch warmer than daylight. This table has been very successfull and as it's now a bit worn and I will replace it with a new table exactly the same.
 
Several years ago I remodeled my shop, with the help of a feng shui designer and a lot of sweat equity on my part. I went from a non-moving 20' wall covered with dusty black velcro to 2 shorter walls (visible from the street) with sliding panels covered with GREY VELCRO. I cannot stress how much better the grey is compared to the black. And now the black samples show up!

It was a six month project to do the place over and we were open for business all the time. Customers love the new look and the feng shui is working! Good luck and have fun!
 
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