Al-Dohaim Frame Shop, al-Khobar. Located near the corniche on the corner of Prince Majed Street and 3rd Street.
I had been looking for a place to get pictures framed, and after about three weeks of asking around I finally found a picture frame shop last weekend. I found it unexpectedly when my wife and I visited a home furnishings fair in al-Khobar. We had been walking around the booths, searching for “something traditional” when we came across a trader from Afghanistan who sells rosewood furniture and other furnishings from Afghanistan, and probably also from other countries in the region, such as Pakistan. We bought a hand painted mirror piece, intricately painted in traditional Afghan designs to look like a doorway. The frame was made of wood and two doors could be opened to reveal the mirror inside. The trader gave me his business card in the hope that I would visit his store, which is situated near the corniche. A little later that evening I looked at the back of his card and found a hand-drawn map that shows the location of the store, as well as some of the surrounding stores. It was then that I noticed that one of the other stores was a picture framing shop. I was delighted. I knew the area where both the furniture and picture framing stores are located, not far from the Jarir Bookstore near the corniche and around the corner from a branch of the Arab National Bank, just one block behind Prince Turkey Street.
So I drove there the next morning and took some pictures to be framed. Actually, I had already bought some picture frames at the local Ikea store but the thick card boarders that came with the frames were not exactly the right size and so I needed to find a professional frame shop that could cut new boarders to fit with my pictures. I had a reproduction of an old map, originally published by MacDonald Gill in 1937, that I bought at Stanfords travel shop near Covent Garden in London. It shows three of the main countries where the British bought their tea in the early twentieth century – India, Ceylon and Indonesia. I also had a print of a swimming koi fish painted by Malaysian artist Keng Wai Lee that I purchased from the artist in person at his stall in Spitalfields Market during our trip to London last month. So I took the frames I had already purchased and the pictures to the frame shop and told the salesman, Mr. Shahed, what I wanted and he was able to provide the exact service I needed. He was very helpful and spoke English quite well, so there was no problem with communicating. The frame shop is in a large concrete and glass building located on the corner of Prince Majed Street and 3rd Street. It looks a little rundown when looking at it from the street outside but inside it is spacious and the walls are decorated with old paintings of mostly Arabian scenes, including paintings of members of the Saudi royal family. The store has a somewhat dusty and disheveled feel to it but that is part of its charm. Most importantly, the people working there are friendly and eager to be helpful and there is quite a wide selection of frames.
Afghan style: the painted mirror we bought in al-Khobar.
I drove with my wife to the frame shop again this morning to collect my pictures. There was a strong wind and the air was full of sand, which had a kind of cloud-like effect overhead. It was a sand storm although I wasn’t sure whether it qualified as being one of the famous shamal storms. The store was very busy, and is obviously a popular place with both locals and foreigners. The framers had done an excellent job with both the print and the map and I looked forward to hanging them in our house. After leaving the frame shop we drove to Alissa Mall, one of the older shopping areas in town and also one of the more fun areas to shop. This is one of the best areas of town in which to buy shoes. There are some shoe stores in the mall and also many in the nearby souks; and the quality is also very good, with imports from Europe and Brazil. We parked our car next to the mall and walked beside Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Road to our favorite shawarma sandwich shop, which also sells the most delicious fresh fruit drinks. Shawarmas and fruit drinks were a great way to finish off our morning trip to al-Khobar.
No comments yet.