SARATOGA SPRINGS — Pam Krison, former Director for the Homebuilders Association of the Capital Region and current owner of the Saratoga Chalked Painting Workshop, has moved her company from its old location on Church Street to a new one at 588 Lake Avenue, otherwise remembered as the location formerly known as Mr. Ed’s Ice Cream and Barbecue.
The Workshop’s main function is to repaint people’s furniture so that it can be reused, instead of just being thrown out when it starts to show signs of its age.
“As my retirement was approaching for [the Directorship], I knew I wanted to create something different,” Krison said. “I know that there’s a tremendous amount of furniture out there that people aren’t using anymore, don’t want anymore.”
She continued by saying that for many of the pieces, just putting a fresh coat of paint on it was enough to make it usable again. “It repurposes the furniture that’s there, it revives and allows people to refresh what they already have instead of buying new.”
Krison said that “there are three things that we do here, all around that concept of repurposing, refreshing and reviving furniture.”
The first is selling furniture that is already ready to go in the store that she has already repainted. This can include essentially any piece of wooden furniture, since as Krison said they have “a variety of pieces from tables to bureaus to china cabinets to chairs to bar stools.”
As for how she acquires the pieces, Krison said that she hunts them down, looking for the right style and condition while also trying to maintain a variety of different designs.
Among these is also one of the most interesting pieces in the store: a pair of narrow wooden doors from a house that is over 100 years old that came in the previous week.
“I said ‘hmm, we’ll they’re wood, they’re not furniture,” Krison said. “But it’s from an over 100-year-old house on Lake Avenue in Saratoga, and therefore he’d have to get custom doors, and they’re just perfect to go with the house.”
She said that they opted to not sand the doors, but instead just scrape them to get any loose material off to keep the same look, and that they were then going to paint the doors white.
The second of the Workshop’s main functions is to teach people how to do what Krison does, repaint their old furniture. “There’s enough out there that we’re not going to paint it all here, so we typically have two workshops a week,” Krison said.
During the workshop, attendees use materials provided by the Workshop to create works of art on reclaimed wood Krison obtained from the company StoriedBoards in Lake George. Krison also added that not everyone simply paints a stencil onto a slab of wood, but that there are also trays, frames such as centerpieces boxes and other such more functional designs, depending on the exact workshop.
At the end of the workshop, attendees can take home whatever they made. According to Krison, on average the workshops bring in four to six attendees each.
“They’re learning the technique, but they’re making something and loving the creativity of it,” Krison said. “And nobody needs to be an artist, because these are all stencils. If someone’s an artist they can freehand all they want, but artistic talent is not required.”
She added that the workshops’ times per week are on the website, at www.saratogaworkshop.com, but that the exact timing and days each week are not consistent due to her wanting to be able to give everyone a time slot that they can come in and learn about repainting.
If, for example, she only held workshops from 4:00 to 6:00 every day, then anyone working during those hours would never be able to attend. With the shifting hours, everyone has a chance to show up, even though they will need to check in advance to know when a convenient time is coming up.
The Workshop’s final function is to repaint pieces and hand them back to the original owners. Krison said for people that either do not want to paint or, like her for years, simply do not have the time to paint, they can contact her and she will work with them to decide on a color or multiple colors that they can agree on, then the customer will bring in the piece and Krison will custom paint it for them.
Krison said, “the beauty of all of this, too, is that it’s affordable because we are repurposing furniture.”
As for why she is now renting a location known for an eatery, she said that it allows for people to more easily move furniture in and out of the building, and that the space allowed for larger workshops.
She pointed out how the windows are still their original design, originally allowing them to slide to the side so that the servers could hand out food from inside to the customers outside. Additionally, the grassy area in the back of the building was originally where the barbecues happened. Currently, Krison said that they do not have a use for the outside space.
“No more new ice creams, but we do have new flavors,” Krison said. For other future plans, she said that she just wanted to keep growing and get more people to learn how to repurpose their furniture.
For more information, visit www.saratogaworkshop.com, or call 518-937-1315.
