Avanti Art & Design

I never give ratings like this lightly, and no, it’s not based on poor service or a bad attitude. This review is based on business practice. Around November I began calling local businesses to get a quote on two canvases that needed to be stretched. I emailed this place and got no response (still haven’t). Was all hope lost? No! I called and got a wonderful quote. I repeatedly said «is that the total cost?» Because it seemed too good to be true. Low and behold, it was. Once I stepped in to this lovely gallery/​workspace I felt hopeful and inspired… Until the prices of both canvases went up by $ 25…Each. Oh, and there’s an extra charge for the wood used to stretch. Oh, and taxes. The quote over the phone could not be honored due to the owner’s assistant’s hesitancy, therefore the great deal I believed I was going to get turned out to be a classic «Bait and Switch».
They did a nice job with the canvas stretching, but the other places I called were easy to fulfill their quotes and gave the full price. This was THE MOST DISAPPOINTING business experience I’ve had on the West Coast thus far. You want a good deal? Don’t call OR email: Go somewhere else or ask in person to get the full price.

Avanti Art and Design offers a wonderfully supportive, non-​judgemental community for local artists and crafts people to congregate and share. Wendy is a kind, spirited, knowledgeable, amazing professional who adds so much to the local neighborhood. Her side kick, helper, contributor Leela is also a big plus to Avanti. Need a frame, both Wendy and Leela have the eye to give you a great product.

As an artist who has shown and sold work at Avanti over the past year, I can honestly say Wendy and her team are professional and so supportive of their artists. The new gallery space is FANTASTIC and the caliber of art that is displayed each month continually inspires me to work harder. Back in my art school days, my mentor said you know you’ve seen a good exhibit if after seeing it, you can’t wait to get back to your studio and get to work. I feel that way after every new show opens at Avanti.
Framing is their passion. Wendy has helped me to maximize the impact of several pieces by adjusting my frames or suggesting alternative mountings. Thanks Avanti for all you do for the art community in Seattle!

BEWARE! Bait and Switch and attempted FRAUD!
I wish I had read the other reviews here before attempting to do business with this gallery. Wendy attempted to do a bait and switch on me twice. If you enjoy attempted fraud, having to call the police, failure to refund the entire amount of a transaction, misinformation about a gallery call, and an emotional hysterical owner who yells out slanderous remarks, then feel free to do business here at your own risk.

I got a diploma custom framed and matted here a couple years ago. At the time I was unemployed and pretty broke. The wonderful ladies at Avanti were able to give me a fantastic price and even found a ‘scrap’ of mat, that fit PERFECTLY, and at a reduced cost. Unfortunately life got a hold of me and it took me about a year to actually pick up my diploma. They still had it in the back and didn’t begrudge me the long storage. They are great people who do phenomenal work. Their art shows are also wonderful. If you need something framed or are looking for a new piece of art to put on your wall at home, check them out.

They do professional-​quality framing work, but I’ll second or third everything everyone else here says about them being slow or having your framing get delayed for unknown reasons.
I’m happy with the piece I got framed from them, but I can’t see myself taking anything else to them in the future given how much it costs and the delays.

This is a fun art co-​op and frame shop. I haven’t used the framing services yet but have been in to see their art during the art walk and was really impressed. The artists are unique and obviously local. My daughter loved the print of the three billy goats gruff climbing the Fremont Troll! The owner was friendly and informative and the prices were very reasonable. I plan to use them for my next framing project. I was impressed by the quality of the display pieces.

This place is absolutely ridiculous.
I came here in December to get a painting framed. We went through options, and the total came to about $ 500 which I was fine with — good framing is expensive.
They told me when it was supposed to be ready by — it wasn’t. I called and they told me it will definitely, for sure, without a doubt be ready tomorrow — it wasn’t. They said it would absolutely be ready by the weekend — it wasn’t. This went on for a couple weeks until it was finally ready. They offered to drop it off at my house, but since I live so close I said I would just pick it up when driving by some time.
THEY WERE ALWAYS CLOSED!!! So they have decided that putting a giant closed sign on the door and posting the hours that they are open next to it in tiny print is a way to tell people, we are open during the hours posted that you can’t see from your car to people that just have something they need quickly, but we are closed to everyone else because we don’t have time to deal with anything that isn’t quick.
After passing by the store tons of times and always seeing the closed sign and always assuming they were closed, finally one day I was on the phone and didn’t notice the closed sign and walked in anyways, and wow they were actually open! Which is when I discovered all that mess.
Anyways — the frame is beautiful, but the service is horrible, slow, and quite frankly pretty stupid since they are clearly losing work and bothering customers by having this system of open and close signs that doesn’t make any sense unless you go in the store and someone tells you about it. I won’t ever be back.

I like the gallery and a lot of the art they make and host, but I won’t go back for their services.
After buying some here by Emmalee at one of the Greenwood art walks, I took three pieces back to have them framed (two just needed mats, one needed the mat and frame). Ultimately the work on the projects was fine, but I was disappointed with the service. Upon placing my order, Wendy said some things about how it was good that people bring stuff in to get work like this done because it helps support the co-​op. I’m totally supportive of this sentiment, but I got a subtext of «it’s a pain that we need to subsidize our work by framing junk for you people.»
I was given a completion date by the end of November (which was over 2 weeks out — probably 3 weeks). On the weekend of December 3, I hadn’t been contacted and was in the neighborhood so I stopped in and was told the project wasn’t done. Not meeting their proposed deadline is acceptable but not contacting me is not — I was miffed. Again, Wendy was working and she attempted to make this right by asking if I could get the stuff in a couple hours. This didn’t fit my schedule so she offered to get the pieces ready by the middle of that week and they then contacted me to say they were ready. But this frustrates me — if my work order was only for a couple hours of work and if that afternoon some work could be shuffled around to accommodate that, why was this going to take 2 weeks to complete in the first place?
The bottom line for me is that I wouldn’t tell someone else to not go here and I do really like the gallery, but I’ll go somewhere else for my next framing job. Or I might finally just buy a mat cutter and buy the other supplies from Daniel Smith which probably would have been cheaper for this project anyway: my total for 2 mats in already-​framed work + the other piece (frame + pretty simple cutmat) came out to $ 230 including a discount card I got from the art walk. I don’t think this is wildly unreasonable, but I don’t consider these bargain basement prices.

Friendly and smart about framing. Way cheaper than Annie’s Not-​So-​Affordable Art. I deduct a star for kind of weird hours. I don’t think their hours are listed on their web site, so you may want to call before heading over.

The gals did a great job on framing some postcard art for my client AND they helped us create custom mosaic tiled mirrors that are simply exquisite. My client thinks they are fantastic!
Considering we ran up against every possible time delayer possible during our projects together, they did a nice job with the timeliness of the results!
As a two person shop who gets a lot of business, they might have a slower turnaround for some projects, as compared to other shops, however, the dollar value and quality of work is great and I think, well worth the wait.

I was visiting a friend in Seattle who happens to live near Avanti. I was showing off my first article that had gotten published, so I decided to have it framed while I was there. I thought that I would have to make another trip up to pick up my article, but Wendy had it done in no time so that I wouldn’t have to wait to have it up on my wall. My sincerest thanks go out to Wendy at Avanti for the beautiful work. She made me proud to hang my work, in her work, on my wall.