Uptown Framers

Uptown Framers operates out of the Broadway Promenade shopping center on North Tamiami Trail, run by owner and designer Dotti Sechrist, a Ringling College of Art and Design graduate with more than twenty five years of experience in custom framing. That art school background shows up in how the shop approaches each project, treating framing less like a commodity service and more like a design decision that should complement the piece and the room it will hang in.

The shop’s location in Broadway Promenade puts it within easy reach of both the Rosemary District and the northern stretch of downtown Sarasota, making it a convenient stop for residents living in the condos and neighborhoods along the Tamiami Trail corridor. Because the shopping center also holds a grocery store and other everyday retailers, a framing errand can double up with other stops rather than requiring a dedicated trip across town.

Sechrist’s design background means the shop can go beyond basic moulding selection into fuller conversations about color palettes, matting choices, and how a framed piece fits into an existing collection or a new one being built out. That kind of guidance is especially useful for clients working with large art collections, estate pieces, or anything with sentimental weight where getting the presentation right matters more than getting it done fast. The shop stocks a wide selection of moulding styles and decorative options, which gives customers room to compare finishes side by side rather than choosing from a narrow catalog.

Uptown Framers keeps steady hours, open Monday through Saturday from 10am to 5pm, which gives working professionals a reasonable window to drop off or pick up pieces without having to take time off during the week. As an independently owned shop rather than part of a regional or national chain, the business can also take on smaller or more unusual jobs that bigger operations sometimes turn away, and Sechrist herself is typically the one guiding customers through their options rather than a rotating staff of clerks.

For anyone in Sarasota looking for a framing partner who treats the work as a design project rather than an assembly line task, Uptown Framers offers that kind of personal attention. The combination of a formally trained owner, a convenient North Trail location, and a quarter century of hands-on framing experience makes it a solid choice for both everyday framing needs and more involved design projects that call for someone who can talk through the options in detail. Longtime Sarasota residents often mention the shop as a dependable local alternative to shipping art off to a big national framing chain.