Remember that time we had a baby, six weeks later found a new house, two weeks after that started wedding season, then when he was 12 weeks we packed up our old house and moved? Whew! Goodness, the first part of last year was a total whirlwind! We house hunted FOR.EVER. I'm talking since the year 2010. Too many hours spent on google and looking at everything in a 20 mile radius. We had hopes of finding a home that we could also work out of, but in a bigger way than just having a home office, which is what we did previously. Camera stuff and samples take up more room than you think! We had only been at the showing of our house for less than ten minutes when I knew this was going to be "our home".
It was located our preferred location, and had a big den right off the back door that I knew would be perfect for the business side of things. The house was move in ready, but as you will able to see from the BEFORE pictures, it was far from my taste. And though there were no real renovations to make, boy did I ever manage to find plenty of things that I wanted changed. Have I mention lately I married a saint?! It's true, ya'll. With a tiny baby on my hip and in full blown wedding season, I was not much help to Joe who took on the never ending to do list...which included changing every light switch and outlet, oh, and every light fixture...just to name a few. We won't mention the number of fans we also had to hang(remind me later to start my "cute fan" company. None exist!). Then, just a few times(I promise), I didn't like what I had picked and we had to change it again. A saint, I tell ya! It's pretty great being married to someone so handy, although he might say it's a curse:) I have such faith that he can do ANYTHING!:)
House improvements continued all through the summer and getting my studio ready was put on the back burner because honestly, there was no time to work on it. We just sorta closed the doors and ignored the fact that it was holding all the random furniture that didn't have a home yet and that nothing was on the walls. This past fall it really got moved to the top of the list and were finally able to pull it all together. I was so excited to get new samples and just have a space to meet clients that I feel truly represents me, my style and my company!
Here is a little peak at the new studio space as well as a BEFORE photo to show how far it came.
Here are a few of the details. People often ask my paint colors, etc, so I am going to list them here.
- Carpet ripped up and laid unfinished hardwoods from Lumber Liquidators that were painted Alabaster White by Sherwin Williams and a taupe color(have to find can for exact shade). They turned out JUST as I had hoped! We had this part hired out because the painting was quite an undertaking. The unfinished hardwoods were sanded, then painted primer white, then Alabaster. Then they had a tile guy come out and chalk line the floor into the diamond pattern, then taped that off, then painted in the gray. Then sealed the whole floor. Whew, told you it was a lot. This whole process took over a week because the coats of paint all had to try each time.
- Main room color: Pale Silver by Restoration Hardware. Color matched at Sherwin Williams.
- Room with desk: Silver Sage(my favorite and also our living room color) by Restoration Hardware. Color matched at Sherwin Williams.
- Furniture painted white (after being painted green, sorry babe!). Found my fabric at Dale Ray Fabrics in Kannapolis. My favorite place to shop for fabrics! They are so helpful and have a great selection. I had bought the bare furniture frames more than a few years ago and we have been moving them around until we finally were able to use them.
Hope you enjoy the new studio space as much as we do! A huge shout out to my talented and amazing designer friend Meredith, also owner of The Loft at 14th, for putting up with countless text messages of items I was going to buy(and then she would tell me not to buy), for her advice on paint colors, design and spacing, and just in general awesomeness. If you are looking for a designer, she comes highly recommended as her taste is incredible.
BEFORE. The previous owners were using this space as a den/tv room. There was tan berber carpet. The sun room they had wicker furniture and used the space as a traditional sunroom.
Now for the AFTER! Don't mind my cute office doggy:)
I love having this cute little turnstile from Pottery Barn to display all of the card samples.
This fabric was really the base of the whole studio. I fell in love with it for the unfinished wood chair frames I had, so I knew the color scheme would have to compliment this fabric somehow.
He is sooo sweet!!