Aaron Brothers Art & Framing

Aaron Brothers Art & Framing is a historic framing brand now operating as a custom framing program inside Michaels stores rather than as its own retail chain. Today the name appears within Michaels as a branded shop-in-shop offering custom framing services and related products, with all locations tied to existing Michaels real estate and no separate Aaron Brothers storefronts.

The company traces its roots to 1946, when two brothers in Los Angeles, California, who worked in the framing trade, opened a dedicated retail business focused on picture frames and framing services. Over the following decades the brand grew from a local California framer into a regional specialty chain. At its peak it operated more than one hundred stores across California and several western and Sunbelt states, serving hobbyists, working artists, and home decorators with custom framing, ready-made frames, and wall décor.

A notable milestone came when Aaron Brothers was acquired by Office Depot in the late 1980s, bringing the banner into a larger national retail platform. The next major turning point was its acquisition by Michaels, which positioned Aaron Brothers as a specialty framing and wall décor concept alongside Michaels’ broader craft and seasonal merchandise stores. For many years after that transaction, Aaron Brothers continued to run as a distinct, branded chain, generally occupying in-line and end-cap boxes in power centers and community centers.

By the mid-2010s, shifts in discretionary spending, competition from value retailers, and the rise of online framing options led Michaels to rethink the role of the Aaron Brothers fleet. In January 2018 Michaels announced that all 94 remaining Aaron Brothers stores would be closed, with the brand refocused as a custom framing shop-in-shop concept within Michaels boxes. Those closures were carried out through the balance of 2018, and the stand-alone Aaron Brothers website and store locator were taken down or redirected.

As of March 2019, Aaron Brothers no longer operated stand-alone stores, and the brand functioned solely as an internal framing banner inside Michaels locations. All custom framing volume tied to the Aaron Brothers name flowed through existing Michaels stores, with no independent site selection, leasing activity, or new unit growth under the Aaron Brothers banner. Over roughly the prior five years, the brand’s evolution was marked by this shift from a regional box-based chain to a fully integrated component of Michaels’ in-store services, effectively converting its former footprint into a source of second-generation space for new tenants while keeping the Aaron Brothers name alive within Michaels’ four walls.