SOMERS, N.Y. - After nearly two decades of running their small but mighty custom framing and gift shop in Somers together, Ken and Ginny Ryan are finally ready to embark on a different life adventure.
They’re picturing that future as one that will be just as fulfilling and maybe, just maybe, a whole lot less hectic.
The North Salem couple announced this week that they’re planning to hang up their final “closed” sign at Somers Custom Framing at 253 Route 202 in early June.
A craftsman and an artist respectively, Ken and Ginny met in college and married soon after.
Ken became a marketing executive. A full-time mom, Ginny painted portraits in her home studio and murals on the walls of local schools and homes.
In 2006, they decided to combine their talents and passions by launching a brick and mortar in a former deli when the youngest of their six children was in pre-school.
The Ryans knew about Somers because they'd lived there for a bit before moving a few minutes away to neighboring North Salem.
That proximity, the fact that there was no place to get things professionally framed in Somers at the time, plus the generosity, support, and guidance of other small business owners, helped seal the deal when they came across their future home.
“Besides, Somers is a great town,” Ken explains.
One Big Happy
Fast-forward to the present.
It’s interacting with customers – many of whom have become fast friends -- that they’ll miss the most.
Eighteen plus years is a lifetime and the Ryans have seen customers’ children grow up to have families of their own.
“Some of the moms who were pregnant when they came in, now their kids are in high school. One day you’re helping them with baby gifts and the next …,” Ginny says, misty-eyed. “It’s unbelievable.”
They also remember the mentors.
“You do your own thing but we’re not in a vacuum; we’re in a community, this great community. Somers is a wonderful town to have a business in and there’s so many people who come in along the way that just teach you things. So many people know so much,” Ginny says.
Like the “elderly gentleman” from a nearby condo development who had once owned an antique restoration business.
He wandered in one day to wonder if the shop cleaned and restored old paintings.
There wasn’t “a lot of call” for that but once in a great while someone would ask and Ken would tell them, ‘I don’t, but I know someone who does.’”
The man would come in – supposedly to teach Ken -- do his thing, and then brush off any attempts by the Ryans to pay him.
That’s probably because, they guess, that he was still passionate about preserving art and just happy that the younger generation was interested in acquiring new skills and experiences.
On Solid Ground
Their decision to move on wasn’t based on economic factors or lack of enthusiasm.
The award-winning enterprise has a wide customer base that encompasses all of Westchester County and surrounding counties, including Putnam. They’ve had people travel from as far away as Connecticut and New York City.
The business community has become like family as well. Many of the Ryan kids worked at local pizza joints and restaurants as teens. "We all support each other," Ginny says.
According to Ken, the shop could have easily plugged along for another 18 ½ years.
Besides framing, photo restoration, printing, and giclee scanning/ reproduction services, the store is also known for its carefully curated and displayed collections of artwork, jewelry, tasteful clothing for women and men, gourmet goodies, fashion accessories, snuggly toys and adorable togs for little ones, and luxury body products such as imported lotions and perfumes.
Ken is renowned for his painstaking attention to detail and his ability to frame just about anything; Ginny, for her eye for color, variety, and her gift for sussing out exactly what the community both needs and wants.
The framing services have twice earned “Best of” awards from Westchester Magazine.
Branching Out
Ginny soon branched out.
Paired up with family friend and buying/merch phenom Donna Santagate, she would trot off to the Big Apple every four or six weeks to browse the fashion and gift shows.
Ginny also credits a lot of the shop’s success to Corinne Stanton, a marketing guru “who knows everybody and everything.”
“Any business in town that wants to increase their visibility should reach out to Corinne,” she says, adding that Stanton’s “honest, kind, and a social media maven.” (Full disclosure: Stanton is Halston Media’s director of client and community relations.)
One of the secrets of the gift store’s success was that it changed things up often. Customers quickly had to learn to "grab it before it’s gone,” but that’s what made everything new and fresh, Ginny says.
The couple put in a herculean amount of time and effort into growing their vision, keeping the lights on, and supporting themselves and their six children.
On top of all of this, the Ryans opened Fro-Yo Fusion, a frozen yogurt/sorbet kiosk at a sports complex in Brewster in 2011. They opened a full-time shop in Mahopac a year later.
Eventually, it became too physically “draining” to toggle back and forth between the shop and Fro-Yo. They gave up the latter.
Working seven days a week between Thanksgiving and Christmas meant that the loving parents reluctantly had to miss out on some holiday gatherings along the way.
While it was hard to juggle the business and family commitments, they made sure to carve out time for their kids’ sporting events. Fortunately, those were at night and on the weekends.
Not that either of them isn’t immensely grateful for the opportunity to have their own store.
“It’s worked very well,” says Ginny.
However, Ken adds, finishing her sentence, “the time commitment to do it forced us to sacrifice time with our family and, frankly, we don’t want to make that sacrifice anymore.”
Fortunately for the Ryans, five of their now-grown offspring still reside and work within driving distance.
Their youngest son just “re-upped” in the Marines. He’s stationed on the West Coast and they miss him terribly.
That love and devotion is evident in the large color photograph – framed by Ken, of course – of the Ryan clan that holds pride of place in the shop.
All of their offspring have different callings.
Besides the one in the military, there's a sibling who's a scientist. A second teaches third grade while another is studying to be an elementary school teacher. Then there’s the tech expert and the coach/athletic director.
The Ryans will be welcoming their very first grandbaby this summer and they’re not about to miss any chances to cuddle or spoil him.
“My goal is to have a picture of our grandchild with Santa. We could never do that during the holiday season,” Ken says.
“There are so many things coming up: bridal showers, weddings, baby showers,” Ginny adds.
Both are active, healthy, and look (this reporter jealously admits) – despite the patriarch’s silvery hair -- young for their age.
So, now’s the perfect time for the pair to take a bit of a step back, go whole hog with family gatherings, and hopefully indulge in a few leisurely road trips and stopovers in cozy bed-and-breakfasts, they say.
Ginny’s been “dying” to see the rest of America while she and her hubby still can.
“I love our country,” she says.
“We’re getting into a new, exciting phase,” says Ken, noting that neither one of them is completely throwing in the towel.
“We’re both going to be working, just not at something that’s 24/7. So you’re going to see me around town,” says Ginny, self-deprecatingly joking: “I’m like an unlucky penny; I’ll keep turning up.”
Ken intends to continue on professionally installing art in private homes and commercial operations, a side gig that had already been providing a “decent chunk” of the Ryans’ income. He works with decorators and with customers directly.
Clients range from folks who have just moved in and “literally have a whole house to hang” to others who just have a handful but not a clue on how to properly do it themselves.
It doesn’t make a bit of difference to Ken whether those pieces are a treasured child’s finger painting or a million-dollar canvas; all pieces get the same TLC.
“They all mean something to someone,” he says.
Memories Preserved
And speaking of preserving memories -- the shop has seen its share of unusual framing requests.
Ken’s framed everything from military uniforms and memorabilia, enormous flags, and Olympic gold medals to delicate butterfly collections, a musical score penned by a famous composer, and once, part of a firefighter’s turnout gear.
The last item, a pair of pants, were brought in by the son of a first responder who’d tragically perished on 9/11.
Then there was the wooden shadowbox that Ken handcrafted for someone’s gold-plated, commemorative Winchester rifle.
“I take pictures of the jobs I’ve done and once in a while I’ll scroll through them and go ‘Oh, my gosh! I totally forgot I did that,’” he recalls.
Handing Over the Reins
Having started the business “from nothing,” the Ryans are the store; the store is them.
But now that they’ve decided to close, if someone wanted to continue the framing/gift tradition, they would be more than open to it.
“I would help them transition in a second … if they were interested,” Ken says, completely understanding that the new owners will want to “put their own stamp on it.”
“They’re going to establish their own rapport with customers and they’ll be THEIR customers. So, I wouldn’t expect them to be running the Ken and Ginny Show two years from now,” he adds, smiling.
Last Chance
Because the shop’s closing, framing jobs need to come no later than May 15. And they must be picked up by June 6 or 7.
Its hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.
For more information, visit the shop’s website, www.somerscustomframing.com, call (914) 276-3173, or email Ken@SomersFraming.com.
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