Studio tour, part 1 – The HowJoyful office (2013 version)

I've been promising a studio tour for a long time now. So I cleaned up a little bit and decided to share my “happy place” with all of you now before I call it “done” because if I keep waiting, I am never going to do it. This tour is from 2013, if you would like to see how this same room looks like in 2020, check it out here.

I'm dividing the tour into two parts because my studio consists of two rooms, so today you'll get to see my office space. In this room is where I work on all my Design & Studio projects, and ship some of my orders.

At times, it also works as our guest room (well, actually we've only had my Mom stay here) but it's nice to have an extra space that our friends could use if they needed to.

Almost a year and a half ago I showed you guys what this room looked like when we bought the house, to refresh your memory, this is how excited I was about having this space (and I was 2 months pregnant with Conner too)

All the little areas in my office have evolved from my need for each space, this dresser was the last piece I bought for the office because I needed a place to store all the finished totes, cards, pillow covers, and fabric products from my shop.

The little book of lettering is one of my favorite inspirational books right now, highly recommended =]

The shipping station is probably the second most used space in this room (my desk is by far the number one) And as you can tell, I am a little obsessed with baker's twine, I collect all the colors I can find because they look so cute and add a little extra touch to my orders.

That pink pillow below my desk is where Curly likes to sleep when I work, I know he probably thinks it's too feminine, but the barks don't scare me, pink bed it is! ha!

Recently I bought a chalk pen that I'm obsessed with so now I'm using the little chalkboard clips to label everything I can, and I made little containers to keep my stickers and other small items =]

My very favorite thing to use to add color to my packages (notes and pretty much everything I can) is washi tape, I was introduced to it when I moved here, and I'm obsessed, I am always looking for projects I can make with them, there are so many different patterns! I love it!

Most of the items in my office are reclaimed, recycled, or gifted. That helped my budget for the office tremendously, the only items I had to buy were my desk, bookshelf behind my chair, and the dresser next to the window.

I was lucky to find lots of things at the thrift shop and since I'm addicted to couponing most of the tools and supplies that were not bought wholesale I got with 40% -60% off at Joann's and Michael's, so that kept the budget for the office space very friendly =]

My favorite part of the office is the pink wall with the “HowJoyful” painted, I used the old school technique to make it and it was a super fun project.

To add more storage space, I made a box (covered it with wrapping paper) and added holes to pass the feet of my mirror, that way I can use the space in the back to store rolls of wrapping paper.

For the wall next to my desk I spray-painted and Ikea magazine rack, some clipboards and the frame of my dry-erase board to make them look extra pretty (or it might be that I am obsessed with painting everything ha!) I also painted and made a cover for my desk chair (two years ago) and it still works perfectly =] I also made a matching mousepad (still using that one too)

The one Item that I invested in this year was my tablet, I decided on a Wacom Bamboo Create because it had amazing reviews, so far it has not disappointed, it makes it so much easier to vectorize and to touch up images in Photoshop.

Another item that I love is the pink cover for my keyboard, I love the little pop of color and also the protection because little Conner is very good about grabbing my drinks when I have him there with me.

I also always keep a pad of Fabriano dotted paper that way if I need to sketch something quick I have the “right” kind of paper and I'm not using the one from the printer.

The Staedtler Triplus fineliners are my to-go pens when I need to add some color to my notes (they are not for the whiteboard) I also love to keep a HowJoyful calendar on hand and I keep a list of the post I have to work for the blog and some pretty mail pieces.

I used cardboard to make custom fitting boxes (wrapped in the same wrapping paper as the box by my mirror) for some of my shipping products in the bookshelves, and I used 99cents store containers to organize all my washi tape and other materials.

I taped some of my favorite sketches and prints from my shop. Ken also make wood letters for me, a big K for above my couch and an ampersand for the sewing room, I love the texture he added to the green paint =] he sure knows me!

My drawing Manikin is one of the things I actually bought from my college years, it's a great reminder and such a helper when I want to draw people that don't look like stick figures =]

I'm so happy to finally show you around my studio, up next you'll be able to see my very favorite, the sewing room!

And because it's good to remember how this place used to look like, here are the before pictures!

I hope you all have a great day!