Welcome!
You’ve seen bits and pieces of my home studio/office on here and instagram, but I’m excited to finally do a full reveal of the entire space! Get ready for an image heavy post guys, cause I have a lot to show you here in the Squirrelly Minds Studio.

As I pieced the studio together, I featured various projects such as the gold curtains. But I really took my time completing the room because there was so much I wanted and not enough funds. Hey man, working part time and renovating a house sucks the ‘pretty-studio-things’ budget dry. So I entered the Stapes Office Makeover contest, fully not anticipating actually winning.
I was floored when I got the e-mail saying my design was selected. Woohoo! Winning this makeover really kicked the studio renovation into full gear and has made it exactly what I wanted. It’s so funny to look back on what this space used to look like. The changes made a huge difference, especially the chair.

 

I got my IKEA desk last March. I knew it would be a multipurpose space for typing, crafting, painting, and more – so it needed to be big. This really is the command centre of the room, which is why I took so long putting together the gallery wall above and around the desk.
I cut out kraft paper to match the size of each frame, then spent over a month taping them up, rearranging them, and looking at them from different angles to decide on an orientation I liked. Insane I know, but if I didn’t get it right the first time I knew I’d drive myself bonkers.

As you can probably tell from the rest of the photos, I like having walls full of bright happy colours, so this blank wall is a bit of a tough contrast for me. But I purposely chose to have a blank wall so I can use it to photograph against, such as for the colour game printable. When it’s not in use, I have this garland (cheers Lexi!) hanging up with washi tape so it can be quickly taken down for set up and pictures.
I often get asked about my dresser, which is my ultimate craft storage (alongside my frighteningly messy closet). I salivated over this Nood dresser every time I walked by the shop window. I mean, it has a perfectly sized washi tape drawer! But sadly it was far out my price range. I continued the one sided love affair until the shop announced it’s store closing sale – 50% off! I was sure sad to see such a great shop go, but so glad this dresser was finally mine!

 

But out of all the winnings and scored deals, my favourite item in the room is the rug.
Similar to a rag rug, this manta (Portuguese, traditionally a bedspread) was woven by my grandmother in her tiny rural Azorean town. But not only woven. This is what makes the manta so incredible; my mom’s mom grew flax seed, stripped the seed to make linen, made clothes for her herself, her husband and 9 children from that linen, then when those clothes were far from repair after hours of farm work, the fabric was deconstructed and woven into a manta.
Talk about up-cycling.

Well you’ve seen the dining room and now the studio. Next on the docket is the kitchen! Hopefully we won’t take months to finish that one as well.
Thanks for joining in on the tour!

Want to get the studio look?

Spread the love

More to read right here

Home | Living Room Reveal Home | The Bungalow Basement Renovation – Before Home | The Bungalow Basement Renovation – After Home/Life | Dining Room Makeover – Before