One of the things that James and I have been working on around our house is converting the living room into a usable home studio for me. Unfortunately, that means sacrificing quite a bit of square footage to designate as “business”, but it definitely has pros- The biggest one being that I don’t have to pay rent for a separate studio. It does have a lot of cons too though- I have to keep the rest of the house fairly straightened when clients are coming over; James has to leave the house when I have a session (which is fine for a regular 45 min-1 hour session, but is very hard when it’s a newborn session); It becomes harder to separate work and home.

One way that we’ve brainstormed fixing the “James has to leave the house with the kids” problem is installing some french doors in the studio room.  This way we can close off the room, and most likely he could stay here and just keep the kids downstairs during my sessions.

The “renovation” started a few weeks back when I had to ransack through everything and completely organize. It took a few chaotic days–a lot of garbage bags. And a big huge mess, because as we all know, it always looks worse before it looks better. It was quite a process. Then we sold our couch and gigantic matching chair, which we were a bit sad about, but it was for the better. I found a great piece to replace those at Home Goods, which is a lot smaller and much more mobile. We are still figuring out the final details, but it’s getting there!  And yesterday was my first session in the “new” room.  Let me tell you how incredible it was to have all of my props organized and out and OFF of the floor! Usually we have to lug them all out from the garage and I put them all around the room on the floor. And then all of my blankets and wraps were in rubbermaid bins, and those ended up littering the floor too. It was a big mess for the most part, and usually made me feel a bit claustrophobic. But yesterday, it was amazing. The props stayed on the shelves until I needed one. The blankets are all folded on the shelves. The wraps and hats are in containers on a shelf.  It was great. And cleanup was a cinch. Hooray!

I still travel to clients’ homes sometimes (for a fee, since it requires a lot of loading/unloading-twice!), and those will still be a little more unorganized and messy–but at least now I have my home as an option.

And because I don’t want to reveal everything all at once, I’m going to give you a sneak peek at some of the details in the room. I’ll post more images in the next few weeks!