Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Lakey.
Hi Mark, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
We started our business in 2000, exclusively providing decor and art to the large homebuilding industry for model homes. We supplied several of the top 10 private and publicly traded builders across the country from our home base in Chattanooga. Our clients would either set up new model homes at the location of a new subdivision or build a house from the ground up for the National Home Builders Show to be displayed for sales promotion during the show. Our job was to decorate the homes to show how it could look when lived in. This included everything from clothes in the closets to artwork on the walls.
Our business changed dramatically in 2007 when the housing market crashed and we were left with no customers and no orders. We thought about and prayed considerably whether we would remain in business or not. We opened our doors to the retail public in the summer of 2007, providing all the services we utilized in the wall art side of our previous model. We had state-of-the-art equipment that helped in the transition to providing top-notch products to our new customers. We simply figured that a customer would benefit from a custom framing company that could produce the images that would go into there new frame. From there, we began to offer art reproduction services as well to expand our offerings to artists who wished to make prints of there works to sell. We now are one of the largest custom frame shops in the southeast. We offer art and photo printing on every substrate possible with today’s technology. Art Warehouse prints on paper, canvas, wood, acrylic and aluminum. Our printing service provides eco-friendly materials to the public as well as corporate accounts and design trade accounts. Papers can be ordered with archival ratings greater than 300 years all the way to aluminum prints designed to last years outdoors. We seen huge growth with the outdoor products as more people art decorating their outdoor living areas as much or more than the inside of their homes. Our goals are to continue to grow in the directions of technology and customer desires take us. We love what we do and love the people we work with.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
The housing market crash of 2007 changed our business model.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
We had a darkroom in our house when we were young and both were school photographers for the yearbook as kids. It was only when we began Art Warehouse that we began to offer our experience in photography professionally with art reproduction.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
The largest impact of the covid-19 crisis was of course the financial impact we felt initially with the closing down most businesses. We were able to close our doors to the retail but remain open, printing covid-19 signs for all of our hospital clients and corporate customers. The most interest aspect of the what we learned through it all was just how supportive a client base could be. Our customers have simply put “saved us.” In the beginning, we even had customers offering loans and even some offering grants or gifts! We are only here because of the support of our loyal customers and in return, our main focus is on providing them with the best we can do.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@artwarehouse.biz
- Website: www.artwarehouse.biz
- Instagram: artwarehousechatt
- Facebook: @artwarehousechattanooga
