When I started my business (Pink Loves Brown), I used a second bedroom in the apartment we were renting as my studio. Soon work spilled out into the rest of our home, and areas like the dining room table became the shipping center. After two years, I had finally rented a separate studio space! Hooray! 600 square feet of space!
Then we decided to buy a house, and I gave up the studio. I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining, because it is a trade-off I was more than happy to make. Brandon and I both wanted a house so badly, and there is room here for me to make a studio… in a spare bedroom. Just like when I started. ;)
So now the space has gone from 600 square feet down to about 150. It’s tight, but manageable.
A lot of work has been done already. I’ve painted the dragon (YAY), turned the closet into storage for crafty supplies, and setup my shipping center (not on the dining room table, thankyouverymuch). Still to do: rip up the carpet and lay the solid bamboo floors, paint the wood trim white, and change the window treatments.
Plus it feels a little bland in there. Maybe I shouldn’t have gotten rid of the dragon!
debb
March 19, 2007 at 11:36 amIs there room in your basement for more studio room? We also bought a house last spring in Chicago partially for more studio room for me as I understand the exploding studio space syndrome… I do some of the same indie shows as you do.
Right now our basement is unfinished but my studio is down there anyway since we only have a 2 bedroom bungalow with an unfinished attic. Eventually I want to get the space all finished but it’s proving to be slow work.
Love reading about you house BTW!
Nicole
March 19, 2007 at 11:52 amYes, there’s a full (unfinished) basement. I’m already storing the things for the business that I don’t need on a daily basis down there (i.e. display racks for shows). It is a possiblity to move the studio down there, but for now I’m making it work in the spare room.
Stephanie
March 19, 2007 at 7:35 pmthe space looks great so far! i am voting no dragon, though. he just doesn’t match! :)
Kaelinsaurus
April 13, 2007 at 12:37 pmMy husband and I got married last June and had to merge all our stuff into a 500 sq ft apartment (yikes!). I’m still in the process of getting everything organized, and I was wondering where you found all your great little storage boxes (the ones with the lids and labels on the outside). I’ve found all kinds of cool ones that are plastic, cardboard, or sans lid, but I need sturdy ones I can stack easily!
Kat
April 24, 2007 at 8:30 amurgh… It amazes me that people try to sell their house without doing anything to it… one house we looked at before finding ours had very dark blue walls (hmm paint on sale, anyone?) and a huge badly painted tree on it. yikes! it did not make us lust after that house. a simple coat of white would have taken care of it. but, gives you incentive to customize your walls! the house looks great!