Refitting our Kettering Shop

A few of our regular customers might have noticed a few minor disruptions over the last few months, as we have been making some improvements to our Kettering store, ZanArt Gallery and Framing. It's been a few years since the walls had seen a fresh coat of paint, and with us being busy, having a lot of customers in and out of the store over the years, the carpet was looking worn and tired. And, to go with us being busier than ever in store, we were in need of extra work space, and new tools and equipment to suit the new tasks we were doing in the store. So it was decided, that we would get a decorator in to repaint the shop, and make some other improvements, and whilst this was being done, we got a few quotes for a new carpet, and arranged for that to be fitted.

Our decorator, David, worked around us and our customers, to fill in any little holes in the walls, repaint the walls and ceilings, and also improved the appearance of our window displays, by adding some strong chain across part of the window, so that we could hang frames in our window displays to show potential customers more of our stock. Once all of the painting was complete, we had our carpet fitted by Concept Flooring. We opted for a dark charcoal colour, which was more modern looking than our previous blue carpet. You can see here our old carpet, whilst we were in the process of moving all of our stock, displays and equipment to one half of the shop, ready for our carpet fitting the next morning.

Three of our staff arrived at the shop around 8am on a Sunday morning, to finish moving a few items including our heavy counter, ready for the carpet fitters, who arrived around 9am and immediately started on removing our old carpet. You can see here the bare floorboards which lay beneath, and also the start of the new carpet being fitted.

Once, one half of the shop was done, we moved all of the stock etc. back to the other half of the shop, for the final half to be completed. It was a long process, but thankfully due to everyone working efficiently, we had the shop back in working order by 5pm that same day. You can see here already how much better the new carpet looks, even with our old mats in place!

We had ordered some new heavy duty mats to match the colour of our new carpet, and once these had arrived, customers had started to notice the changes in the shop, commenting on how fresh it was looking. Now that the carpet was fitted, we could continue on with the improvements in the shop, including having a new workstation built, and improving our counter. Our decorator, David, returned to the shop, and built the table in situ, and cladded it with a clean and modern looking dark oak. We then had the counter covered to match, which was a big enhancement, as the previous dark wood was beginning to look worn.

Once the new work station was complete, we bought and fitted an air compressor, to speed up cleaning of big frames with an air gun, and so that we could add flexible tabs to frames in store. In the near future, we will have a staple gun tool to use with our air compressor, which, along with a few other tools, will be used to stretch canvases, among other processes. So, keep an eye out in store, for even more services being offered within!