Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 8, Issue 6, June 2004

Copyright 2004 Seattle Sun. Please feel free to use the article below in your research. Be sure to cite the Seattle Sun as your source.

Frame shop specializes in 'cheap therapy'

By JAMES BUSH

Some of Rhonda Clausen Brallier's best customers don't have much to say.

"They're always coming in, looking for something that's right for the wall," says the owner of Frame It Ltd. "They don't want you to help them -- they're walking around seeking inspiration."

Brallier's Northgate-area frame shop is a good place to find it. The store, which doubled in size four years ago, is full to the brim with framed and unframed posters, art prints, photographs, historic scenes, and anything else that might look good hanging over your desk or sofa.

The store was founded in 1978 as part of the Frame It chain. Brallier, who earned a bachelor's degree in fine art and art history from Indiana's Anderson University (although much of her initial classwork was done at Seattle Pacific University), came to work for Frame It in 1980.

She says she'll never forget her starting wage: $3.25 an hour.

But the work, and the business, appealed to this former art history major. In 1986, when the Frame It chain began liquidation, she purchased the Northgate store, plus stores in Lynnwood and the University District and operated them for about a decade.

The challenge of finding and retaining good employees and keeping tabs on all three stores began to wear on her, explains Brallier. "It just wasn't as much fun anymore."

So, she sold her Lynnwood operation and closed her U-District store to concentrate on operating her stand-alone framing shop in the Northgate area.

Frame It Ltd. is open seven days a week and has a staff of 2 full-time and 3 part-time employees. (Ironically, only one other of the Frame It chain's 21 former franchises still survives under the original name, downtown's Frame It Northwest.)

Brallier grew up in Wallingford, where she attended the pre-busing trifecta of Wallingford schools: Interlake Elementary School, Hamilton Middle School and Lincoln High School. She's since purchased the family home from her parents. Among her employees over the years was her daughter, Jessica, who is set to graduate from the University of Washington.

The best part about the framing business is you seldom get bored, because you never know what sort of job might come in the door, Brallier says. "It's like problem solving. They lay something down, (and) you start asking questions: Are you keeping it? Is it a gift? Where will you hang it?

"Some people know exactly what they want you to do," she says. "Others say 'You're the expert...'"

Her biggest job ever: A full-sized kimono in a 6-foot-by-4-foot-frame.

The most common job that comes in through the door: family pictures.

Quality framing and art does so much to make you feel good in your home or office environment, says Brallier. When it's done well, she likes to tell her customers, it's like cheap therapy.

Well, this line doesn't work on all customers. A few years back, she used it on a male customer and his wife immediately burst out laughing. "He's a therapist," she explained.

But the therapeutic value of quality framing extends to its practitioners, she adds. "When you finish something and it looks really good, it's gratifying."

* * *

Frame It Ltd. is located at 539-F NE Northgate Way; 364-7477; www.frameitnorthgate.com.