Helpful friendly staff, wide variety of supplies, somewhat reasonable prices, and open on Sunday. Fantastic!

I would drop a good chunk of my paychecks here on paint brands and tools you couldn't find at your average art store...sadly that is no longer the case. The selection has gone down a lot over the years. Discounts are few and not as generous. I used to purchase bundles of discounted materials just to experiment and add to my studio. The staff is still helpful but its weird to see the connected clothing store slowly taking up more and more space in Palace Art. read more

kiah, an employee, was a really helpful person and very patient in my inquisitiveness about what kind of pencils to get. there is a big selection of art supplies ranging in prices. woo kiah! read more

A great art supply store! Very clean and well organized. Plenty of selection and well-stocked. Reasonable prices on good products. read more

Walked in while the employee at the front desk he was drawing never greeted me. At a glance schedule book is $37 in the store 14 on Amazon outrageous! You want to support local businesses, but you also don't want to be ripped off. read more

I was browsing and an employee began following me, the only person of color in the store. I felt really uncomfortable. I don't recommend this store if you're a person of color. read more

Palace Art & Office Supply - Art Supplies Near Me - Capitola, California

Amazing art store! So glad they are still in business under new ownership! I've been coming here since 2007:) They used to have 2 locations. I moved away, but when I come up to visit family I stop by to buy some art supplies here! I highly recommend this place for office, art supplies, and crafts. I think the also do business with the local school districts to provide them paper and school supplies:) It's definitely great to support a local business:) If you are a local in Santa Cruz, the greater Bay Area, or just a tourist this is the place to go:) read more

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I'm glad they are still in business, but it's not the great art store it used to be. The biggest missing item are the art classes from Toaa Dallo. I used to buy all my art supplies there after class. They could really pick up their business if they bring back the art classes. read more

Palace Art & Office Supply - From the pet portrait class from Toaa Dallo at Palace - Art Supplies Near Me - Capitola, California

Palace Arts supply is your one stop shop for all artists. They have just about anything you can think of for art supplies whether you are just tinkering around or a serious artist and need to restock your canvas and paint supplies. They also offer school and office supplies. And if your not so artsy, pick up a gift card and surprise someone, who know may be they will paint a portrait of you!!! read more

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They switched everything around inside. Couldn't find any of my usual things after walking around in circles for ten minutes. I'm visually impaired and have mobility issues. Guess I'll just buy my stuff online from now on. Sad read more

Love Palace! So many great gift ideas for all ages. Plus new boutique is attached, Moods for women and men with awesome clothing and accessories. read more

I was going to the beach and remembered a Christmas present I had to get. I stopped at Palace are in office supply and I was pleasantly surprised. I was able to find a portfolio at a great cost and also a zipper bound presentation case to cover it. The staff was friendly and they had a great selection of pens to. They did everything in response to Covid that you could ask for. Great place to go for art supplies! read more

Palace Art & Office Supply - The sign to the store. - Art Supplies Near Me - Capitola, California

WAY OVERPRICED!!!! The Palace masking fluid was $17 total. Whereas Amazon is $10. Palace is a rip off. They are suffocating the wallets of local artists. There are items like this all over the store where the markup is extremely high. At least with Michaels or Joann Fabrics they give you a discount. read more

Palace Art & Office Supply - Palace masking fluid - Art Supplies Near Me - Capitola, California

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This place is great! You can always find something new. The staff is friendly, and they have great promotions during local events. From the most technical pens, paints and canvases to pretty much any office supply or school supply you could think of, they have it all read more

I love the selection and sheer volume of options. Whatever I need Palace seems to have it. They can special order things that you can't find on Amazon and I like supporting a family business. The downside? Most employees have no idea what they are talking about and appear disinterested at best. You can find the occasional expert but it's tough sometimes. read more

This is a great place for pens Pen re fills. They have art supplies, stationery , frames etc. There is usually a coupon in the Good Times. read more

Went here for the first time this afternoon to look for some art supplies as a birthday gift for my girlfriend. I had no issues, and there are tons of supplies, I got a lot of good ideas of what I might get her. However: an employee followed my mom around the store because she is noticeably Mexican. I am very fair skinned and had no issues. 5/5 for the actual store, but 0/5 for racism. read more

Love the supplies they carry but a little bit on the pricey side. So glad they're staying open. Staff is ok but would never go as far saying they have great customer service. Half the time they're drawing behind the counter and you have to find someone to help you. Not once have I ever been greeted or approached by staff to see how it was doing But when you do have a question they are very knowledgeable. Would give more stars if they had better hours. Very inconvenient being closed on Sundays and closing early during the weekdays making it impossible for someone that works to go and shop. Hoping with new owners they reconsider the hours. read more

I want to thank Tracy, Palace's furniture manager at the warehouse for finding the right chair that I needed. I could not find here in town another reasonably priced chair to match the height requirements of my desk. However, after a few chats about my chair needs, Tracy found it! The chair is perfect, height is just what I needed. I love the fabric & color too. I really appreciate the diligence in finding me the perfect chair. It also arrived when Palace said it would and I did not have to assemble it! A Huge Plus! Thanx Palace and your Tracy is Awesome! ~AM read more

Slightly limited selection if you're looking for something very specific, but they have all the basics, including a large assortment of enviro-friendly things. They always have some good novelty items, especially during the holidays, if you're looking for a fun gift for someone. read more

Palace Art & Office Supply - This will make a great gift for all your Bigfoot-searching gift recipients! - Art Supplies Near Me - Capitola, California

I knew I didn't like this place but it took a visit there to remind me how much I hated it. The most-obviously-minimum-wage college staff does not seem to want to help you out if you need help finding something, which you definitely will. read more

I shouldn't shop here. This store makes me spend all my money on those pretty, sparkly gelly roll pens. I'm a sucker for glitter. The raccoon in me loves it. read more

Had an issue over the weekend with a crafting project that I needed fixed ASAP for a bridal shower, so I called palace for help. The guy that answered was super helpful! Gave me a great recommendation, checked to make sure the product was in stock, and even offered to help me with the project. When I came in, a guy asked right away if I needed help- ended up being the same dude that answered the phone. He remembered me from my call & walked me over to what I needed. I've gone to palace several times over the years, and never been really impressed with the service- never bad, just nothin special. Last weekend definitely changed my mind! read more

I like to support local business and Palace Arts carries a lot of really cool stuff. The reason it gets 2 stars, though, is because it's all really expensive, and it's really hard to get help. The staff is usually running around doing other things and it can be hard to get their attention. I had questions about photo matting for the SC and Monterey County Faires. I asked an employee for help, who said he wasn't really familiar with the regulations (which I had in my hand). He kind of shrugged me off and said he'd send over the guy who does when he got out of the bathroom. We waited about 15 minutes, but he never came. No one else offered to help us. I had another guy ask me a question thinking (hoping?) I worked there. It's a cool store with a fun selection of great products, but the pricing and attention you get makes me say "screw it" and just want to shop online. read more

Though the person who helped me with the selection of paint was knowledgeable helpful and friendly, the guy behind the front counter needs an attitude adjustment. I honesty can say if I went in to shop again and he happened to be working I would get back in my car and go to the downtown location to avoid his vibe. read more

This art and office supplies store has a toy selection to rival any children's gift shop. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that they have an assortment of gifts for babies, toddlers, older kids, middle school students, and even high schoolers. They carry lots of Melissa and Doug items. Additionally, there's a whole wall of science-focused gifts/gift sets for the little scientists in your life. I saw other neat products, like an ant farm set. Merchandise geared towards kids include puzzles, flash cards, books, glow-in-the-dark stars, tools for nature exploration, and so much more. Very impressed and would highly recommend you drop by if you'll be heading to a little one's birthday party soon. read more

Always the best! Been going to the 41st location for years. Art supplies and office supplies and always a fun clearance sale with cheap, good stuff. Took my new puppy in just to say hi. My old dog always went in, I took him in the cart no one even knew he was there. read more

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Palace Art always comes through for supplies for Art Classes. They also have portfolio supplies of all kinds. Will work with other store in town to help find more of what you need. Good selection of office furniture and frames. read more

I love LOVE coming to this store! Not only do they have the products I am looking for ALWAYS in stock, they have excellent customer service and assistance on the floor. If they dont have a product you need (which is rare), they will order the items for you and then call you as soon as its in, and they are happy to do it. I can always find my favorite brand of acrylic paints at this location.. the Pacific store doesnt even seem to carry them anymore.. Its hard to tell since Pacific always seems only half stocked at all times. Shannon and her crew have always been amazing to me, helping me find products I need, recommending new items and they dont just point to what isle the items are in, they will escort you around that whole store to ensure you find exactly what you need. The staff never seem rushed or impatient (like the pacific location), either. 5 stars to the Capitola location, I highly recommend coming to this store for all of your artistic needs. read more

When I found out one of my friends is equally obsessed and entranced by art supply stores, we decided to meet up here one morning for a play date. 4 hours later we were delirious and intoxicated with color overload (well I was anyway, he was more into the black pens and journals)... I joined an Acrylics paint class run by an inspiring teacher and artist Lexis Rubenis, who also works there. I highly recommend attending his workshops. He will teach you so many things about Acrylic paint that will inspire you to do wonderful things! read more

This is a review of the Capitola Palace store. The Santa Cruz one may not be as bad. Palace was a great local store until recently when the Trowbridge family sold it. It has changed dramatically--the staff is very young, is inexperienced and is often rude. There doesn't seem to be a manager present. Some of the expensive drawing and coloring pens are dried up/used up. My daughter, who buys a lot of artist's supplies, saw one of the employees drawing with the pens and then putting them back in the display. I don't recommend purchasing artist's supplies there. read more

Overpriced by quite a bit compared to other sources in the county. They have an odd assortment of items they stock. Some items you would think they carry are just not there and others are stocked that really make no sense for a store of this type. Their customer loyalty program is back in the 20th century at best. We have been trying to give them business for over 15 years and they just make it too hard especially for teachers. read more

this is a great store good selection, good prices recently went there to get a frame for a larger picture; one of the employees kind of "waved" me towards the general area of the frames (as opposed to giving me a more precise location) but he had a friendly attitude and was very pleasant good store, nice employees. doesn't get much better then that. would recommend to anyone needing arts/office supplies (and larger frames!) read more

One of the few locally owned stationary stores. They used to be alot more helpful and really seemed to go out of their way. No so much anymore. read more

I didn't realize that once they made you pay for bags that now the cashiers are too lazy to bag for you. Bring your own bag does NOT mean bag your own stuff. Lazy employees. Not just here, in Santa Cruz in general. Bad customer service read more

My 6-year-old daughter is a student at Ocean Grove and we met with her ES (teacher) to pick up an order we placed. We spent hundreds of dollars in supplies and my excited little artist couldn't wait to get her hands on her new items! While we were there, we had to sign a few roll sheets for her school and go over a few things, including the possibility of signing up for art classes at this specific location. We looked for a place to sit, especially since we had a huge box of supplies we just picked up (again, worth HUNDREDS of dollars) we saw an old table in the corner and some folded chairs. Let me also state that there were MAYBE 4 people shopping in the entire store. This was Thursday March 8th at about 4 pm. Anyway, no one was there and we thought it would be fine to pull up a couple of chairs and sign some paperwork. A male employee, I'm guessing he was a manager by his tone and power trip, but I can't be sure, came up to the table and asked if we needed help. He then told us it was "unusual" for people to sit back at the table. Our ES told him politely that we didn't need help, that we had just picked up our order, and that in about 10 minutes we'd be out of his hair. He walked away, only to approach us again 5 minutes later. This time his tone was EXTREMELY RUDE. He said this was a "rented space" and we needed to leave the store if we weren't going to pay for it. Our ES explained that we had spent HUNDREDS of dollars there and that the store was very empty, and asked for two minutes and we'd leave. To which he responded interrupting, "no you need to leave right now. We have a class coming in any second." Very upset, and feeling like we had done something terribly wrong (he made us feel as if we had shoplifted or squatted without spending any money) we packed up and I vowed to never come back to this store again. My 6 year old was completely shaken by his tone and aggression. I went to Baskin Robbins around the corner to calm my child's nerves (what does that better than ice cream?!) and walked back to my car. At this point It was about 45 minutes after our unpleasant run in, so I thought I'd check in to see if a class was in fact in session. NOPE. No one. Not even 5 people in the store at that point. So he blatantly lied to us, for what? To play some power trip on two women and a young child?! Absolutely disgusting. If there was in fact any sign that a class was happening soon, we would have been happy to move out of their way, but there wasn't. Instead, he made it very clear where we won't be shopping EVER AGAIN. Which is sad because our ES refers a ton of students to this location, and we as parents spend way more money than we would otherwise because the funding comes from Ocean Grove. I will be going to Lenz from now on because I won't support a company who treats their customers this way. My daughter has told about 5 people about the "mean employee" at Palace Arts. I hope this company reads my review and maybe offers some training in basic common curtesy. read more

Very helpful and friendly staff. Helped me find a list of supplies I needed for some classes I'm taking. Swag.

Decided to give Palace another try, more disappointed than ever. They were out of white watercolor tubes, prices are too high, no one on the floor to help and the girl at the check out counter would rather have been doing something else. I realize people have their bad days, but this seems to be a trend in Palace. The store seems to be morphing from an art store into a gift shop; which is fine, but if so then please stop marketing it as an art supply store. I will not be coming back. read more

As a Capitola native I am always waiting for that special someone to broaden my artistic horizons. I am always satisfied with the service at palace art. I compose for mixed mediums, so I usually need to sample from a wide array of supplies; helping me on my extensive shopping sprees is no simple task.  On my last visit to palace art, the just and wise gods of art sent me a muse, a vision in tortoise shell glasses. Nabokov speaks of nymphets, divine creatures who rise above their contemporaries and to whom we are inexorably compelled. Now I know that such a creature exists, and she works at palace art, Capitola. For years now my work has always suffered a vague deficiency, a missing hue in the technicolor spectrum that is my artistic palate. Could it be a certain combination of gouache and acrylic? Maybe a sideways flick of just the right x-acto knife or a drop of puff paint? The search has been exhaustive and always fruitless. For years I have been taunted by the specter of a truly authentic work, always just out of reach. Until my last visit to palace art, when my muse appeared to me as if from a vision. Her mannerisms were casual yet alert, her dress immaculate, and her eyes spoke to a deeper artistic wisdom than I have ever known. I knew upon seeing her that this would be no ordinary trip to the art supply store, but I had no idea that she would suggest the missing element to my I completed work of five years, "A Youthful Exuberance In The Wake Of the Fall of the Tyrant" (mixed medium, 2014). I showed her a picture on my "smart phone" (to use the ill fitting parlance of the day) and I saw a slow smile glide across her face, the smile of Athena, that goddess of wisdom entering to mortal realm to bring meaning to the void. She disappeared for an eternity (in my estimation) and returned with a micron, .005, and pressed the pen firmly into my hand. She disappeared wordlessly while I, disbelieving fool that I am, approached the counter with trepidation, reticent to believe the advice of this seemingly random girl, who could be no more than twenty. Upon returning home I began to play with the pen, to feel the strong yet subtle strokes of its infinitesimally diminutive pigment. Within minutes, I began to flow, slowly at first, but then faster, yet with a grace I have never known. By the morning the work was finished, a true masterpiece, and I, as if finishing a task prescribed by a divine hand, fell into a deep sleep. Yet I will always remember that the hand which guided me was not divine but mortal, and I will always remember that name etched into the very essence of my being. HANNAH. read more

What is not to like about a local art store. Everything you can imagine for the up and coming artist or the experienced Da Vinci can be found at this store. For my personal likes I use palace to buy the matting for my photos. They will help you out and teach you how to accomplish your task or in some cases do it for you ( for a price that is ). Besides art supplies they sell office furniture. So if you are interested in making some art yourself pop on in and start working on your masterpiece. read more