Why would you want to custom frame anything?

Really. Why would anyone want to go to the expense and hassle of bringing their stuff to a snooty frame shop when they can just order a frame off line and do it themselves? Good question...sort of. This is the first in a series of what you may find to be boring posts about answering the above questions. So strap in and let's get going.

 Firstly, it's expensive. Let's face it, custom framing isn't cheap, it can be quite expensive. Especially when done right. That family photo you just snapped could easily cost $200.00 to frame (and more depending on the products you choose). You've got to pay for the frame(usually the most expensive component), mats(I think they should always be acid free), glass(UV filtering is the best) and labor. That's alot of money when you think about it. Although, when you look at how long you'll enjoy that family photo, especially if properly framed, it really doesn't cost that much. That piece professionally framed piece on your wall will last longer than any clothes or car you'll buy and longer than most furniture as well.

Typical Pottery Barn style frame

Super awesome custom framing

Even more super awesome custom framing

The future of wall decor is here

At the end of January, Lara and I had an opportunity to go to Las Vegas for a trade show. Now you would think the most exciting thing we saw was the abundance of folks advertising prostitutes, or the hordes of human zombies mesmerized by slot machines like moths to a flame. Sure, all that was pretty eye opening but the coolest thing by far we saw (and here's where you get a picture of just how cool we are) was a new software platform that allows us to shop online for art images, purchase those images, then download and print them all in a matter of minutes, and all from our shop (or your office, boardroom, etc.).

This is a technology that is long overdue. Imagine, no more out of stock or discontinued images, no more shipping fees and two week turn arounds until the art comes in. This allows publishers to divorce themselves from stacks of preprinted images, and allows us the ease and speed to get what we want, when we want it. See, I told you it was cooler than prostitutes and slack jawed gamblers.

Both of the above images are from this new resource, and were framed virtually using the virtual framing tool available from the homepage of our website. And as always, if there are any questions about this or any other service we offer don't hesitate to reach out to us.

We're back, or Real Custom Framing

So, I figured since more than a year has passed since the last Hampton House blog post, it's time to dust the ole gal off and get things going again. The new format will be very similar to the old in that the content will vary between art, framing, design and senseless ruminations. The plan is for me to update about once a week with the happenings from the world of Hampton House and beyond. And with that being said, here goes:

Probably the most exciting thing to happen around Hampton House this week was the completion of a true custom framing project. Most of the picture framing we do always while custom is pretty standard stuff (albeit oh so lovely), but once in a blue moon we get a true challenge, and this was a doozey.

Note the arrow indicating where the splice is.

The challenge was to frame a 100 year old South Pacific tapa cloth that was longer than the industry standard 10 foot moulding length and way longer than the 60 inch standard for matting and mounting products. We had to splice three sheets of acid free matting and foamcore together to mount the piece down to, and the moulding had to be spliced toghter by master craftsman Steven Cole. If you need to kow why I call Stevie a master craftsman, just check out the photo of the (all but invisible) splice. Needless to say, all materials had to be special ordered and this project took a couple of months to bring to fruition. The result is a true museum worthy piece.

Finished Tapa Cloth

 Thanks for reading and, most of all, sincerest thanks for your business!