Our Studio Reveal Series: Living Room & Photo Studio Area!

The Story

I remember the day when Joanna and I sat down having brunch and drinks, and we said: “we are ready, right?”. We met almost 4 years ago and we connected instantly! Two mamas who met on Instagram and became “insta-friends”, both immigrants living in Quebec the exact same time, and Caesar lovers, isn’t this trio kind of amazing? 

Joanna raised her girls at home, growing her blog and Instagram while I was working full time at The Gazette and then at a digital start-up as a Media Strategist and a part-time blogger. Almost 7 years ago, we both saw how the industry in Canada evolved from Tumblr, blogger, twitter, Myspace (lol), decent blogs, websites, and now the “influencer” era.
For both, creating beautiful content has been our number one priority while inspiring our community to live a joyful, colourful and happy life, and we felt we needed a space to get inspired, to evolve into something better and we knew it was the right time to do it.

The happiest 800sqf 

November 2018 was the month we decided to start looking, actively, studio options in the city. We thought of every-single-scenario: – renting an empty photography studio a few days and shoot there (until we realized half of our homes were full with props and yes, a zillion things we needed out)- sharing a space with a stranger (that I wasn’t really convinced, but it was still a decent option)- renting a corner in a co-working space with other creatives- winning the lotto (ha!)- finding an old loft and sharing between the two of us (that actually happened)On a cloudy morning driving Oli to her daycare in St-Henri, I did a pit stop (and lil’ did I know it was my lucky day), I decided to ask if any lofts were available in a building I’ve been loving since I moved to the “hood”, and to my surprise, they had TWO ready to rent in the next two weeks (excuse, moi? is this real?) The space was absolutely perfect! and I could totally see these 800sqf as the happiest ones as soon as we said yes! The space is perfectly located in the heart of Saint-Henri, next to the canal Lachine, with plenty of space and natural light. 

What you need to know when you’re renting a studio for the first time 

As newbies, we discovered a looot of things when you decide to grow up and rent an office, so here are a few things we discovered:- Negotiate a short-term lease when you know it is “the one”. We did it for one year because let’s be real, a lot of things can happen in 12 months.- Save a lot. In our personal case, we were asked for deposits plus the month in advance, so we had to put some cash at first with absolutely nothing in return.- You’ll get a white canvas, no furniture, no kitchen, just the empty space.- Check the space before you move in and ask to repaint the walls and clean everything. Thankfully our building is the best and they did an excellent job when we moved in.- Save as much as you can, go to vintage markets, kijiji, and recycle things when you start.- They will run your credit before you sign the lease and you’ll receive an approval in advance (something I didn’t know), so clean that credit if you need to.

What exactly did we do with the loft

We have an open space area and we incorporated five main areas in the loft:- Kitchenette (still working in some adjustments here and there)- Workshop area- Desk stations- Living room- Photo studio area

The Living Room

Noooow, let’s jump into the juicy details, shall we? When it comes to styling and finding the best furniture we wanted for the studio, we had in mind a boho, happy meets artsy, style. Structube was THE best option, finding every single item we dreamed of for the studio. Our wish list had the following (all dreamy, obviously) items:- Velvet gold Flexi multifunctional sofa– Velvet Carlyle armchair in deep green (similar here)- Velvet Ellie pink loveseat– Elton coffee table (similar here)Structube’s velvet line is absolutely dreamy! We received them at our door with their delivery service and funny story about this, Joanna and I for the first time ever, arranged to assemble each piece without any help or husbands around, we loved every single minute of this brand new “oh hey we got this, sofa!”. We are SO in love AND proud!  

The Photo Studio Area

This was the main reason we needed a studio in the first place, Joanna’s home and mine are the tiniest living spaces (eeeever), and trying to fit endless props, colourful backdrops, photography equipment, and all that jazz was pretty much mission impossible. The photo studio is right next to our main (and only) window so we can shoot with both natural light and studio light if we need to.We left a big corner to fit a fully styled room (the pink scene you see in this post), or a full-sized backdrop to shoot portraits, a table with 8 seats if we need to do food shootings, or stop motion videos in a super comfy and wide area (that I needed the most). 

What are our plans with the Photo Area

At the moment, we are here 3 to 4 days during the week and we use our photo studio at least twice a week. We are currently renting our space to other creatives and photographers in the city and they’ve been loving it so far.Coming up soon, we’ll launch our studio website where you can rent the space (yes, all for you) and host events, use it as a pinterest studio or as a photo studio, the possibilities are endless, right? 

Studio Source List 

floor lamp – Structube // macrame wall hanging – Babasouk // art prints & art painting – Lysa Jordan // pastel pillows – Structube // artificial cactus – Structube // lidded yellow basket – Babasouk // knitted white pouf – Vintage // pastel moroccan rug – Babasouk // pink peacock chair – Vintage // artificial fiddle leaf tree – Structube // beni ourain moroccan rug (black & white) – Babasouk // ceramic white vase – Structube // pastel moroccan pouf – Thrifted //  

moroccan boucherouite pillowcases – Babasouk // flower art print – Babasouk // philodendron art print – Babasouk // colourful paper backdrops – BHphoto // white cabinets & organizers – Ikea // abstract colourful pillows – Babasouk // floral container with unicorn lid – Target