The perfect frame-up

Couple support themselves by

By Rebecca Ragain

Pamplin Media Group, Jan 8, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

L.E. BASKOW / PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP PHOTOS

Lars Jorgensen cuts pieces in the shop behind their house where he and his wife, Lisa Pratt, make picture frames using recycled wood and nontoxic paint and varnish. Their business, Green House Framing, is in its fifth year and growing.

You minimized waste over the holidays by reusing gift wrap, purchased local or fair-trade gifts, and served up a feast made with organic ingredients. And through it all, you were snapping photos.

Now, do you stop at a chain store and buy $10 picture frames manufactured in China? Or do you choose a frame built locally from reclaimed wood and finished with a nontoxic stain?

Lisa Pratt and Lars Jorgensen, who run a company called Green House Framing out of their home in Southeast Portland, are finding that more and more people are opting to do the latter.

“We’ve always been high up on a search for ‘recycled picture frames’ or that sort of thing,” says Jorgensen, referring to Internet users who find the company’s Web site, www.recycledframes.com, through a search engine. “But we find now that a lot more people are searching for those types of terms.”

Green House frames are sold in stores in a number of states, including Herbivore (1211 S.E. Stark St.) locally. Many retailers, however, balk at stocking the handmade frames because of the prices, which start at $35.

So most sales happen through the Web site. Customers can choose from standard frame sizes (4-by-6, 5-by-7, 8-by-10 inches) in a variety of styles and colors, or order a frame made to specified dimensions.

Jorgensen crafts each frame from reclaimed wood, usually Douglas fir rescued during home deconstruction.

He might take wood from an old wall stud, for instance, and give it a new function as a picture frame. “To take it out of that context and expose it for its true beauty is, I think, a great process,” he says.

Once Jorgensen finishes building a frame, he turns it over to Pratt for finishing with natural oil or water-based stain. Pratt, who has chemical sensitivities, initially spent many hours researching safer finishes before settling on the BioShield brand.

Green House Framing primarily uses matting made from cotton fibers, which Pratt and Jorgensen feel is an environmentally responsible choice because cotton is a renewable resource.

In addition, archival-quality cotton matting is produced using minimal chemicals, which can damage artwork as well as affect the environment.

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