10/24

OMG! We found a studio house!

Home Tour: ABM Studio
By Elsie Larson

OMG! We found a studio house! on abeautifulmess.comOMG. OMG. OMG!!! I honestly cannot remember the last time I was so excited to type out a blog post. Today I'm happy to share that we found the perfect-for-us house and we are in the process of purchasing it to use as a studio for A Beautiful Mess. Our closing date is scheduled for next week!

So first, I thought I would share a little bit about the shopping process. If you've read Emma's and my home buying stories you know we're polar opposites when it comes to shopping. Emma's process was done in a day and mine was drawn out over many months. Can you guess which one of us is lower maintenance? Ha! But all kidding aside, I was slightly terrified to house shop with Emma and our team. What if we didn't agree? How difficult would it be to find something everyone loved? 

As it turned out, it was super helpful to hear different perspectives after seeing each home. We shopped for about two months. The process was slow at first. We found a home we loved and made an offer, but we got outbid. It was discouraging, to say the least, and for a couple weeks it seemed impossible to find something that we loved as much as that first one. As we kept looking we worked hard at evaluating our priorities and making a wants and needs list. 

Jeremy likes browsing house listings so he would often send me a bunch of links to check out. There was one home he sent several times that I kept dismissing because the kitchen was very dark. It was way under our budget, so on one of the days we were going to view homes I added it to our list. When we went inside I instantly loved it, but was pretty sure I would be the only one. It needed a lot more work than any of the other homes we had looked at, but it was huge and it had good bones. Everyone on the team seemed to light up over it too (happy dance!!!). We made an offer a day or two later. It was the best feeling EVER to find the one. 

During the inspection we went in and took photos of all the rooms and brought our contractor with us to discuss the major jobs we want to tackle with him before moving our team there. Here's a sneak peek of our soon-to-be studio house! OMG! We found a studio house! on abeautifulmess.com Windows are really important to us. The natural light is essential for both good photographs and a happy work environment. One of the things we love about the new space is the abundance of giant windows. We also fell in love with the super dark kitchen because we know that we get to completely redo it! It's crazy, and slightly intimidating, to stare at our mile-long renovation wish list. It's also the most exciting thing EVER. 

Some of you have already had questions about the new space. Here's a little more info- 

What's your vision for this studio house? It's basically DIY heaven and we can't wait to share the entire process with you! We will be working in this home on all of the blog content that you would normally see here, like recipes and DIY projects. In addition, we will be sharing a before/after room makeovers of every single room as we turn them into the spaces we envision. We are looking forward to a year full of more home decor projects than ever! 

Why a house and not a loft? There are a few reasons. We did rent a loft two years ago when we started writing our first book. We stayed for about six months, didn't love it and then moved to my home where we've been for the past year. Working from my home really taught us that we love having traditional rooms to take photos in (kitchen, bedroom, dining room, living room etc!) A home is also a better option for us because we'll have far more freedom and space to decorate and create projects. Buying rather than renting is also better financial investment for our business. 

So will it look like a house or an office? Both! We will have a room that functions as an office for computer work as well as all the rooms you'd see in a normal house.

Is anyone going to live there? No, but we will have a guest room. πŸ™‚

If you have any other questions, please let me know in the comments! Over the coming few weeks we will be sharing more before photos of the rooms in our studio house and sharing inspiration for each room. We're so excited to get in there and decorate! This is truly one of the most exciting projects we've ever taken on. We can't wait to share the entire journey with you guys! 

xoxo. Elsie + Emma

Footnote: I have edited some of the text and images from this original post. I never intended for this post to mock the seller's decor. I have tried to make that more clear. I apologize for not being more sensitive. I always learn from my mistakes. Thank you to those who pointed out your concerns politely. We can't wait share more details about our new studio house in the near future! Elsie

183 Comments

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.