KH Art & Framing

Jamal “Jimmy” Hakimi immigrated from Afghanistan in 1974 and learned the framing business while growing up in Manhattan. After moving to Northern Virginia with his family in 1983, he started his own framing business in 1985. By 1994, he had over a dozen framing shops, including one in nearly every mall in the region. As malls began closing, he shut many of the stores down and focused the business at the main store located at the corner of Glebe Road and Langston Boulevard. KH Art and Framing has become known for its quality work. That quality brings back generations of family customers and keeps some clients sending him work even after they move across the country. KH Art and Framing are not only trusted by Arlingtonians, they also handle major contracts with the US Postal Service, multiple government agencies, the Washington Capitals, the Pentagon, and even once framed and hand-delivered a document to President Bill Clinton. Their clients’ framing projects range from small family pictures to priceless Monet’s.

Jimmy believes that to be successful, you have to love what you do. To him, framing is “dealing with people’s personal property of the heart” and is a crucial business that “makes the art art.” Even though the pressures for redevelopment of his building are growing, Jimmy has no plans on leaving the community; the customer relationships he has built are too valuable to him and his family.