Studio Updates

With our growing team, we needed to rearrange a few things around the studio.

When there were four of us on site we all sat together in our open office.

Hiring an on-site procurement and project manager meant finding room for another desk! I gave my spot to Pam and we turned what was our library into an office. While I had mixed feelings about leaving the group (and the natural light!), it has so far been a good move.

Here is the space Before:

And After:

I have tried to sell this burl wallpaper to multiple clients to no avail, so we got it for ourselves! It is VINYL, not particularly expensive, and so good looking.

I have also coveted a real Noguchi lantern for as long as I can remember. I have a fake in my dining room at home and we have used various shapes in 4 projects at this point (in San Francisco, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Tahoe), so it was time to invest in the real deal at the office. It’s such a nice warm glow; I love it!

In the front area of our space, which is visible from the hall and has more of a showroom vibe, the recent changes were less functional and more about the decorating dominoes. The culprit? An impulse purchase of a showroom floor sample—a rust velvet chair with pretty lines and tailored skirt. We moved it to the “living room” and paired it with the old photographer’s sitting chair, which used to be positioned on the signage wall.

The stack of three original collages are new as well. We discovered Allison Anne’s work on a team outing last December to Gamut Gallery. We were able to use standard frames from Target! I love the hints of rust and green in these pieces, and the contemporary edge they lend to the more traditional furniture.

My grandmother’s chairs were bumped to the signage wall. I added a wicker elephant that I picked up on a whim. I love the pattern play in this space!

We bumped my mother’s 80s bamboo chair to the conference room next to the buffet where we store office supplies. We also added a Frame TV last year, which we use for presentations and screen sharing.

And the bone inlay chair that used to sit in this spot got bumped to the back, next to my old/ Pam’s new desk!

The real lesson here is that a holistic, whole-space palette and an interesting mix of pieces gives you lots of flexibility to rearrange. I loved the studio before and I love it now. It has been fun to evolve the space.