Space the final frontier: are you conquered by clutter? daunted by disorganization? A careful redesign of your frame shop's storage solutions may be just the thing to help maximize space and minimize hassle

Art Business News, April, 2004 by Tricia Bisoux

Divide and Conquer

How space is partitioned is just as important as how much space there is to work with. Too often, a single shelving unit may sit crammed full with materials, while a lonely corner or area beneath a work table sits empty and unutilized.

Therefore, whether a framer is rethinking the organization of a current space or planning a new space, the adage "look before your leap" has never been so applicable, said Breininger. She advised framers to ask themselves a few questions about the way their businesses operate before creating any new storage system:

* How much of each type of material--molding, matboard, glass, etc.--will you need on hand? (to determine the storage space required)

* How much useable scrap material will you generate? (to create criteria for usability--throw away or donate the rest)

* How many types, colors and styles do you need on hand? (to determine number of compartments)

* How do you prefer to organize them? (to determine whether to organize by order number, size, color or style)

* How tall are you and your employees? (to determine table and shelf height)

"Take an inventory of the type of work you typically do, or what styles of materials you tend to carry," suggested Breininger. "Come up with 10 to 20 categories of how you plan to group your matboard, moulding and scraps to create a filing system that works for you. Then determine whether you prefer to work sitting down or standing up and what kind of lighting you need."

The answers to such questions can help framers determine the most advantageous divisions of space into shelves, slots and drawers; and choose the best size, height and placement for storage fixtures.

By making such observations, for instance, framers at Marty & Pat's Frame Shoppe have devised a system of storing and organizing customer artwork that works perfectly for them. Art waiting to be framed is supported by backing board and wrapped in individual plastic bags. The bags are then put into flat file drawers that hold art up to 36 by 48 inches in size. The drawers are marked alphabetically by last name. Finished artwork is placed in numbered bins beneath the design counter to await pickup; the number is also written onto the corresponding work order, which is filed alphabetically by customer last name in an accordion file.

Mind Your Matboard

Storing matboard and mat scraps, said Marry Cipolla, of Marty & Pat's Frame Shoppe in Fort Worth, Texas, is one of a framer's most troublesome storage dilemmas. "We solved the mat problem by building a three-tiered mat case that is 17 feet long and 6 feet high," explained Cipolla. "The bottom tier is tall and deep enough to hold full sheets of matboard, the middle tier holds pieces up to 18 inches high and 40 inches deep, and the top tier holds pieces up to 12 inches high and 40 inches deep. Each tier is arranged from left to right by mat number, regardless of brand. This makes it easy to find mats in the size we need."

Sherry Lee, owner of Sheridan's Design Innovation in Phoenix, Ariz., also created a design table that provides just the right amount of storage for the materials her shop required.