Custom art designer and framer Treasure Dragseth says her mobile business, Treasure It? Frame It!, is quickly gaining traction.

For several years, Dragseth has run her own art and frame shop out of her home on Long Lake in the Suncrest neighborhood northwest of Spokane. 

But COVID-19 has taken away the opportunity to meet face-to-face with customers for framing their valued pieces of art and other personal belongings.

Not long after the arrival of the virus, however, Dragseth and her husband, Troy Dragseth, came up with the idea of creating a mobile service in which she could meet with customers behind the safety of plexiglass windows inside a small-sized motor home.

Their search netted a deal on a previously used, smaller-sized yellow school bus. They  gutted it, had it custom painted and turned into an abbreviated art studio where Treasure and customers can safely interact with each other. Most of the time she drives to the homes of her customers, she says.

Dragseth says it took 80 days to get the bus ready for business. She says she first hit the road on Sept. 15.

“When you put your artwork behind the (protective barrier) glass, I start the design process by pulling out everything I think that artwork can be,” she says.

From her vantage point, that process begins without cost in mind.

“I want to show the best of what that work can be,” she says. “If price is an issue, we can start to rotate and change what the selection would be to get to what’s affordable.”

Factored into the overall cost is gas and time, she says.

Upon consulting with the client, Dragseth takes their matte and frame selections to her home and assembles the requested work in her roughly 650-square foot studio at home.

“I love this bus,” Dragseth says excitedly. “When we were building it, my husband kept scolding me. … ‘Stop looking at bathroom and kitchen stuff – you don’t get to live in this.’’’