Shopping in Richmond

A Guild Commended Framer, Frame Nation employs certified framers who match existing frames and create special projects from scratch. Behind the shop's brick storefront, staffers help customers to make selections from more than 2,000 frame samples, including acrylic, steel-welded, and wood options. Combined with glass, museum-quality practices, and a tiny flux capacitor, these protective casings preserve everything from diplomas to wedding photos.

To find inspiration for their own creations, visitors need only view the artwork lining the walls. Frame Nation regularly displays the handiwork of local artists; one ever-present exhibit includes a collection of frames and three-dimensional collages crafted from recycled materials.

Keeping the business in the family for more than 50 years, the sons of Conte's Bicycle & Fitness’s founder Charles R. Conte run the collection of cycle-centric shops with attention to personal service and a constant stock of top-notch bikes and equipment. Conte's technicians specialize in Body Geometry fittings, in which they observe how skeletons work in tandem with cycling movements and demonstrate how to avoid typical discomforts. Holding true to an individualized focus, the team also understands how to fit bikes for women and provides detailed guides that help cyclists choose the right set of wheels. A full-service center, the shop also provides cardio and fitness equipment and executes services such as bike tune-ups, drivetrain overhauls, and brake adjustments that ensure riders can stop on a dime, pick it up, and buy a Chiclet without ever dismounting.

Bed sets, sofas, and barstools populate the showroom at Decor Furniture & Mattress Showplace, set up in arrangements of household rooms. In addition to carrying luxury furniture for living rooms, dining rooms, kitchens, and personal aircraft carriers, Decor Furniture & Mattress Showplace specializes in building custom pieces to accommodate room measurements and the creative visions of clients. With more than 300 fabric, color, and leather options, customers can match existing room decor or draw attention away from evidence left from hosting a weekly food-fight club.

Miniature humans are stylishly outfitted with bedding, transportation, and accessories at weebsworld, a boutique store specializing in "hip gear for cool babies." Friendly staff members offer numerous services, performing complimentary baby-gear consultations that help parents pick out baby bags, blankets, and high chairs. Technicians certified in child-passenger safety supply customers with weighted, life-size baby dolls to try out strollers and car seats, and a storewide stroller track lets them test baby chariots or train for upcoming carriage-pushing marathons. The staff will also assemble strollers purchased in-store or online free of charge, allowing parents and their pride and joy to wheel out of weebsworld in their stylish new ride.

Melanie "The Bead Empress" Bentley established her commonwealth of creativity after years teaching aspiring artists how to work with metal clays. Within her 3,000-square-foot embellishment emporium, Murano glass from Italy, hill tribe silver from Thailand, and Swarovski crystals fill shelves from floor to ceiling. Polymer clays, sterling silver, stringing materials, and Czech fancy glass that Melanie handpicked on a recent trip to the Czech Republic round out the store's stock and arm patrons with the materials necessary to line their family's treasure chest.

But Melanie goes beyond filling the supply boxes of local jewelry makers. She also aims to expand the crafting community by welcoming beading newcomers and showing those who don't believe in their creativity that there's an artisan inside everyone. Along with her fellow specialized jewelrysmiths, Melanie leads more than 45 classes per quarter, providing her customers with a means of acquiring jewelry that’s guaranteed to be free of curses.

Led by Tom and Donna Otis, Fast Frame Charlottesville's friendly staffers outfit pictures and beautifies abodes with ensembles that turn two-dimensional keepsakes into multidimensional treasures. With a vast selection of borders, Fast Frame tastefully accents pictures of cherished memories, safely preserves and displays sports memorabilia, and even frames flat-screen TVs so they can't leave the living room to go chill with the microwave. Under Fast Frame’s Preservation Plus program, frame craftsmen sequester artwork in an acid-free environment and use framing designed to save artifacts from UV light, ensuring that they retain their luster throughout their display and that they are safe for future removal.