IN THE BEGINNING

​Tanya, my wife and business partner (as well as the smartest person I’ll ever know) asked me to write a blog about Le Frame Shoppe’s humble beginnings. I thought to myself, ‘oh, this will be easy to bang out’ and then stared at the screen for what seemed like eons. Starting a how it all started story, was starting to get the best of me! 

​My difficulty was trying to define a pivotal moment, something that separated everything that happened before from everything that has happened since. The truth is however a lot less dramatic and in fact, Le Frame Shoppe was a long time coming.
 
People often asked how I got into custom framing and I always answer ‘backwards’. I thought I wanted to be a rock star. With an education in the very employable field of Theatrical Design, I felt it was only a matter of time before I’d get my lucky break! In the meantime, like most people in music and theatre, I had to find a job in the real world and pay the rent.
 
I answered a help wanted ad for an art gallery and custom frame store and figured it would be a cool place to work while I awaited fate. Turns out fate had found me first!
 
After many years helping to grow that business into a leader in custom frame design and one of the most successful galleries in our area it was time for a new challenge. Don’t get me wrong, I loved managing the art gallery, putting on exhibitions and creating beautiful custom frame designs. Most of all, I’m a people-person and I loved helping our clients. However, there were two problems. I saw ways to make it even better, but it wasn’t mine to change.

Tanya has always been my rock and when it was clear that things had grown stagnant at work she encouraged me to both dream and do. She challenged me to not just dream about how it could be better, but to do the actual work involved in creating a new opportunity.
 
So much had to happen, so much has happened and there is so much more still to happen that I would be in danger of turning this blog post into an epic if I continued on. Perhaps, I should write it out as chapters in a series…I’ll let the smartest person I know decide. :)
 
For now, I’ll leave you with this…
 
I may not be able to pinpoint a specific ‘A-Ha!’ moment as to when Le Frame Shoppe all started but I can tell you the instant it hit me that our business was real. It was a few months in and I had just made a commercial delivery to a well-known company. I picked up the check and just stared. There, written in black and white, was their company’s name and our company’s name. Two real companies, just doing business with each other, like it’s no big deal. 

​It then struck me that I thought of our company name one morning while standing in my briefs ironing pants and wondered if that’s how they came up with their name too.
 
We have many exciting things planned for Le Frame Shoppe and I can’t wait to share them with you as our story continues! Stay up-to-date by signing up to the newsletter.