First the introductions. My name is Kaff, I am a framer. It has been one hour since I made my last frame. I work with my husband Bart, a handsome man, with a fabulous moustache. He is mainly here for decorative purposes and heavy lifting. He does lots more than that in reality but that is my standard response to anyone who assumes he is the framer. We bought our framing shop in 2014. Cherrytree Picture Framers was an established business, that had been in the middle of Spondon village, Derby for thirty-plus years when we took it over.
I can’t believe it’s already been a year since we moved our business to a cabin in our back garden. They say time flies when you are having fun and it has certainly been an enjoyable time. Some of you may have wondered how the move came about. Well, partly it was due to things changing in the village but mainly due to alcohol!
Cast your minds back to the summer of 2022. You remember the summer with the two heatwaves. Glorious sunshine, week after week. Lots of barbeques and beers in the garden. I know it’s hard to imagine with all the terrible, wet and dreary weather we have been having recently but it did happen.
One lovely sunny Sunday afternoon in July, my kids came round for an afternoon barbie. Burgers were eaten, and beers were consumed. A lovely time was had by all. The kids wandered off at about nine. We stayed out, having a few more beers and chatting. Monday is part of our weekend, so we were in no rush to call it a day. This is quite often the time when the immortal words “I’ve had an idea” are uttered. This phrase has often been the start of a lot of hard work for us but we really excelled ourselves this time. To be honest, this is how we ended up with the framing shop in the first place, but that’s a story for another day.
We had had an extension built on the house and the garden had been hard-landscaped during 2021. The garden looked great and we were enjoying our lovely new outside space, until Bart said, “I’ve had an idea. What do you think about bringing the business home?” I’m sure he expected me to say no but I just thought it was a brilliant idea. I usually like to think about these things and weigh up the pros and cons and we will discuss ideas between us but this was just an instant yes! After Bart recovered from the shock of my agreeing straight away he wasted no time looking for a suitable building to house the business. Two weeks later a flatbed lorry arrived with our self-assembly log cabin on board. It took four of us two hours to unload it from the back of the truck. Our previously lovely garden suddenly looked like a giant Jenga game. At this point, I would love to show you photos of said giant Jenga. Unfortunately, all the mess upset me too much for me to be able to bring myself to take any pictures. In hindsight I wish I had but too late to change history.
Thus began the mission to build a log cabin. We assembled walls, fitted windows, laid a floor, hung doors and built the roof. Coffee was drunk, ladders climbed, and swear words were repeated frequently. Bart managed to sunburn his eyeballs while he was fitting the first layer of the roof. The following week he burned his knees on the waterproof membrane which the sun had made red hot! My own, personal one-man disaster area. Bless him.
We were lucky that we managed to get the structure complete while the weather was still in our favour. This was followed by all of the finishing work, weatherproofing the outside three times, painting the inside 3 times, carpets etc. All the things you need to make bare cabin a viable workspace.
In the meantime, we were still running our shop in Spondon village and trying to work out what we were going to bring with us and what to do with everything else. Plans were drawn, and heads were scratched until we were able to shoehorn everything into a space half the size of what we had at the shop.
By September we hadn’t had a day off for nearly two months. We were feeling a tad past our best and came down with COVID-19, which we had managed to avoid up to this point. That scuppered us for a week. It was the only week in eight and a half years at the shop that we actually closed for a week. I even carried on to open the shop the day I fell over and broke my elbow while walking to work in 2017. Anyway, I have sidetracked myself here. Back to the cabin.
The end of the year is always a busy time for us. We have lots of customers who need frames completed before Christmas. Despite this, we decided that moving between Christmas and New Year was an ideal time frame. We sold things. We gave things away. We contacted a local recycling charity https://derbyplayandrecyclingcentre.org/ who collected loads of scrap cardboard and other stuff that may otherwise have gone to the tip. Finally, all of the jobs were completed and the movers booked. We allowed ourselves Christmas Day off. The rest of the week was spent packing, cleaning and ferrying boxes between the shop and home. My two kids, my son-in-law and my best mate all turned up on various days to help out, for which I will be eternally grateful. When Friday came the movers turned up to shift all the stuff that was too big, heavy, awkward or all of the above to fit into a car. Again with the addition of my fab family’s assistance, everything was moved in a couple of hours.
At this point, the garden looked less messy as the big pile of wood had been converted into the cabin. Now was the turn of the house to look like a war zone. This was only relatively short-lived as we sorted out permanent locations for all our stuff. Framing is an eclectic kind of job. What I mean by this is over the years you accumulate all sorts of random things. Some things you buy because they would be cute to frame, like a miniature violin. This we have had for probably six years but it will be framed one day. Other stuff is acquired for a job but you have leftovers, like astro turf from framing football boots. Because you can’t just buy a 500mm by 600mm piece. Then there are the ten different kinds of tape. Five different kinds of glue. All because it just depends on what you need for a specific job. This added to our slight hoarding tendencies makes for a lot of things. Also, we have the 700ish frame samples that need to be displayed but they need somewhere to live before they find their permanent residence. Again there are no pictures of this. The mess just made me feel sad when it got to a metre above the dining table and all of the space below it was full too. We have a BIG table by the way.
On New Year’s Eve and moving into 2023 we worked to ensure all of our equipment was working. We had to set up new systems and rejig our workflow. At the shop, things had evolved over eight years as we had bought new equipment. Moving the business home was a great opportunity to streamline the way we do things. This was partly out of necessity due to having much less space. All of the plans I drew were worth the time spent as pretty much everything fitted where we wanted it to. A couple of small tweaks were all that was needed. We wanted to make our new space look fresh but also be recognisable to returning customers that it was still ‘us’.
Time rolled around to January the 11th 2023. The big opening day had arrived. I excitedly made a little video about our seven-second commute and we were ready for action. Ten o’clock came, no customers. Oh well, let’s have another cuppa. Eleven o’clock came and went and still no one. Midday, starting to have that oh my what have we done? feeling. Had we made a mistake? Twelve forty-five came and the first customers arrived, hooray! This was followed by a steady stream of customers old and new throughout the year.
In the year since we moved, we’ve framed prints, posters and photos, shirts, shoes and so many other things. We always feel so lucky to share the magic of taking a treasured item and turning it into something that the owner will be proud to display for years to come.
To all of those who have supported us in the nearly ten years since we became framers, we thank you. Whether you visited us at the old shop, just at the cabin or both we are truly grateful.
We love working from home but there are a few things we miss about being in the village. We miss all of the lovely folks who would give us a cheery wave through the windows when they were passing. We miss the regulars and other traders who would pop in for a natter. Those of you who know us are aware of how much we love a chat. So if you are nearby and want to see what we could do for you, or if you’re nosey and just want to come for a look you will be made very welcome. Thank you for joining us in our new chapter.
Love Kaff & Bart xx
