The picture framing business was started in 1985 by Deborah Wareing in Portobello Road, alongside our contemporary art gallery.

By 1990, the framing had become the main part of the business so we decided to close the art gallery and concentrate on that. In 1994, we were asked to do a collection of ready-made frames for the Conran Shop. As the business grew, Melanie Howard (Deborah's sister) joined the company and we were rapidly expanding as we now had Habitat and Heals to supply with a Portobello Frames collection. In 1998 we began supplying a contemporary mirror collection to John Lewis which also grew rapidly, this led to our brother Adam joining us in 1999 to run the production department.         

All of our products are hand made to a very high standard, here in England. We purchase all of our materials from British suppliers. With growing concerns about the environment, we only use wood that is on a managed/re-growth programme; i.e. oak, maple, cherry, walnut and beech. Our products are packaged in recycled boxes.  The off-cuts of wood are sent to a baker for his bread making, wood burning oven. Wherever possible we re-use or recycle our wastage.

We design all of our products individually for the retail business, so that John Lewis will never sell the same products as Heals or Conran. Also, the items sold through our online store are all different to the products you will find in the shops.