Close gallery and use as a framing showroom?

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BlueSkyArt
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Re: Close gallery and use as a framing showroom?

Post by BlueSkyArt »

We are on the high street. On south street. I know the place you mean by the bus station. Its the vintage and arts section of town, St. Michaels art studios etc. The framer isnt there anymore and there are quite often part time framers that pop up one minute and are gone the next around here. I've met a few over the last couple of years and none seem to last very long. Semi-retirement jobs. I've always had a lot of framing work from the artists in St. Michaels and I display some of their work in the gallery which is quite nice as it keeps things local and helps them out a bit. Next time you're around, pop in and say hello!
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Re: Close gallery and use as a framing showroom?

Post by Tudor Rose »

BlueSkyArt sounds like you are travelling down the right path for your business and the most important thing is that you have given it thought and then actually got on and done something about it. Too many people take so long thinking about the changes they are going to make that before you know it years have passed and they haven't actually made any progress at all and it's very easy in business to get stuck in the rut of the everyday and not step back and take a good look at your business.

We spent the first few years in business regretting the layout of our workshop and gallery, spending many hours moaning about how it wasn't working the way we thought it would for progressing work through. In the end we finally made a decision to partially shut for 2 weeks, knuckle down and make the changes - and amazingly the time we saved after doing that more than made up for the 2 weeks spent doing it and our only regret was how long we had taken to get round to it and just like you our CMC arrived about the same time and improved that side of the business too. :Slap: Since then we have tried to be a bit more proactive about getting things done, when they actually need to get done! (Don't always succeed mind you, but it's better than it used to be)

So congratulations on the changes you've made so far and hope they bring your business continued success. :clap:
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Re: Close gallery and use as a framing showroom?

Post by Bagpuss »

Tudor Rose wrote: Too many people take so long thinking about the changes they are going to make that before you know it years have passed and they haven't actually made any progress at all and it's very easy in business to get stuck in the rut of the everyday and not step back and take a good look at your business.
WELL SAID !! I've been guilty of that myself, I still haven't got my logo on the car :Slap:
My real name is Adam Laver aka "Adam The Picture Framer", just in case you were unsure ; )
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Re: Close gallery and use as a framing showroom?

Post by Tudor Rose »

Well now's the time to set yourself a deadline!

We had an extension and loft conversion done at home which was started over two years ago and we had a few things left to do ourselves. So two years after paying for new carpets, nearly half the rooms haven't had it put down yet because we still have bits of redecorating to finish off. Weeks turn into months and now here we are and we've set ourselves a deadline of Christmas to have it all finished and all the carpets changed (hoping the poor long suffering carpet company hasn't decided to sell them off in the meantime of course :( ). So I challenge you Bagpuss, get that car logo sorted by Christmas :rock: and we'll see if either of us manages it by the deadline!
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BlueSkyArt
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Re: Close gallery and use as a framing showroom?

Post by BlueSkyArt »

Thank you for your comments! Its nice to get things done and have the business running in a comfortable way. I figured that if the shop change doesnt work out, change it back. I've pretty much finished the counter top now. Just needs a final sand down and several layers of varnish. Websites nearly finished (all done on squarespace.com, great company, really simple to use and cheap). Also ended my contract with retail merchant services a few years early as they were conning me out of an extra £30 a month for card payments. Do not use them. They are the worst! Izettles way better. Hopefully will be doing the showroom renovation the before the end of the month. Haven't thought about putting signs on my car. Blue might clash with my ferrari :)
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Re: Close gallery and use as a framing showroom?

Post by Steve N »

I'm on holiday in Dorset next week, might just pop by to check it all out
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BlueSkyArt
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Re: Close gallery and use as a framing showroom?

Post by BlueSkyArt »

Steve N wrote:I'm on holiday in Dorset next week, might just pop by to check it all out
You are welcome to pop in but there's not a lot to see here at the moment. The gallery is pretty empty and most of the prep work is being done in my brother's workshop where the heavy machinery is. We are closing on the 29th Sep for a few days to do the refurb work and our new Gunnar f1 hybrid is coming on the 6th Oct. Pretty excited!
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Re: Close gallery and use as a framing showroom?

Post by Bagpuss »

Tudor Rose wrote:So I challenge you Bagpuss, get that car logo sorted by Christmas :rock: and we'll see if either of us manages it by the deadline!
Only just read this, haha ! Oh I don't like deadlines but I think I can manage Christmas.. 2015 :lol:
My real name is Adam Laver aka "Adam The Picture Framer", just in case you were unsure ; )
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Re: Close gallery and use as a framing showroom?

Post by BlueSkyArt »

All the work has now been completed at last and we have been open for a few days now. We are both really pleased with how it's turned out! I think we achieved the rustic look we were going for. It's really nice to deal with customers in a brighter, more open environment. Also it now feels like the room is actually being used whereas before most people would walk straight through it (myself included). I'll post some before and after pics so you can see what we have done.
As you walked in the door (before)
As you walked in the door (before)
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After
After
IMG_0071.JPG (6.65 MiB) Viewed 10189 times
Chrissy designed the planking on the wall...and made it (thank you pinterest). The corner behind the counter is going to be an inspiration corner for customers. We'll frame loads of smaller things in different ways and have them all on show (shows off the new CMC and also different types of glass)

Before
Before
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After
After
IMG_0073.JPG (6.43 MiB) Viewed 10189 times
New moulding samples will be going up soon...hopefully... when I have a minute.

Old sign
Old sign
Shop-pic-copy.jpg (226.5 KiB) Viewed 10189 times
New sign
New sign
IMG_0076.JPG (4.91 MiB) Viewed 10189 times
^Autumn themed window on the left :) Framing's pretty boring to display in a shop window, so we are going to do different themes each month.

We cleared out the small dark middle room, painted it all and laid new flooring which has really brightened it up. Gunnar f1 hybrid xl fitted in a treat (thanks Steve). Still getting used to it and we've made a fair few mistakes already, but we all love it. Should have got one years ago.

Most things are sorted out now so we can both take a deep breath...and frantically work hard to catch up again with our framing orders! It's never ending :Slap:
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Re: Close gallery and use as a framing showroom?

Post by Graysalchemy »

That looks realy good. I like your counter with the rustic top and frame design on the front, well done :clap: :clap: :clap:
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Re: Close gallery and use as a framing showroom?

Post by pramsay13 »

Looks great, well done. :clap:
That's the kind of place I like to have a wee wander around when I'm in a new town.
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Re: Close gallery and use as a framing showroom?

Post by BlueSkyArt »

Thought I would update this thread as we've been running the 'new' business for about 6 months now. In a nut shell, it's the best move we could have made and we are busier than ever. Spontaneous sales are much more common now that we have more 'affordable' artwork on show.

We've made up an 'inspiration' corner behind the counter with lots of smaller items/pictures in different types of frames to show off various styles and techniques and this has encouraged quite a lot of people to have something a bit different to what they originally might have had in mind (eg, cove box frames, double thickness and fancy cornered mounts etc).

I've talked about this in another thread but one of the best things we have done is to really take advantage of our windows, especially as we are in a high footfall area of the high street. Themed windows have worked incredibly well. We kinda stole the idea from an article in 4walls mag but its amazing how much interest having a good looking window can draw. We try to promote as many different types of framing as possible with each window and will usually have to order in several of each piece of artwork which goes into the display. Last month we did a vintage travel theme and sold nearly 10 framed maps which the customer could stick pins in to show where they have been (my wife came up with this idea years ago and we've had one up in our living room). This month we've entered a local shop window competition which had a theme of ropes & nets which is the local industry (Our window display is on our facebook page if you want to see).

So overall, the change has been really good.
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Re: Close gallery and use as a framing showroom?

Post by IFGL »

Sent you a pm.
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