I love the idea of chalkboard paint. Doodling thoughts as they strike – brainstorming as a team – making checklists – an entire wall’s worth of chalkboard space would be great for these very uses. But, there’s a problem: chalk makes me squeamish. Seriously. It’s a texture thing. Even thinking about using chalk makes my skin crawl.

Having this affliction, I was incredibly excited to discover (via the How blog) that there is a delightfully non-icky alternative: IdeaPaint! Using IdeaPaint, you can turn any wall, door, desk, or other surface into a whiteboard surface. I LOVE this and will immediately commence convincing Jonathan that we need to paint one of the walls in our office with this stuff. Increased productivity, here I come!

{oh, and…the packaging is pretty cool too!}

After settling into our new studio, we hosted a small open house to show off our great new space! Jodi and Arianna from Woodland Flowers provided gorgeous floral arrangements for the event and we thoroughly enjoyed mingling with friends and colleagues!

Jonathan and I had so much fun creating invitations for the open house – a vintage inspired design that we then had letterpressed on chipboard. The invites were either hand delivered or mailed in gorgeous chocolate or papaya envelopes with wrap-around labels.

I promised I’d share photos of our new studio and here they are! We share the studio with a wonderful floral design company, Woodland Flowers (the beautiful flowers in the photos below were designed by them). Some of our favorite details about the studio are the large open size, the exposed brick walls, and the vaulted ceilings. The room gets a lot of natural light and feels roomy and warm.

The paint color took some trial and error – we wanted a warm and cozy gray, which proved more difficult to find than we expected. But eventually we found the perfect shade, and I can’t be happier with the results! It works nicely with the brick and with all of our white furniture.

The chairs were a find from a vintage furniture resale shop here in Seattle. Once we brought them into the studio, we discovered they are a dead-on match to the existing green carpet. At first we weren’t too sure about either the carpet or the matchiness with the chairs – but we’ve decided to like it for now. Maybe eventually we will be able to change the carpet.

We’re looking forward to many wonderful meetings with our clients in our new space!

As we mentioned a while back, we had bid farewell to our old studio a few weeks ago. It served us well for a couple of years, but after the initial move we went into serious studio set-up mode.

Above is just a quick sneak peek into what we were dealing with as we started to get things together. As you can see, there are some good bones to the room: exposed brick walls, vaulted ceilings and windows with great sunlight. Stay tuned for a in-depth before and after shots of our studio setup that Whitney will post next. We’re excited about the new studio and the chance to meet our clients here as well as all our industry friends.

It has been a busy week preparing for the move into the new studio – choosing a paint color, finalizing furniture, etc. I can’t wait to share photos! We will be starting the move tonight and so I’ll be sure to snap some “in progress” photos as we work.

Today, though, I had to tear myself away from the studio plans to get some good old-fashioned bookkeeping and office work done. Usually this devolves into me looking online at office and organizational supplies rather than doing actual work. Here are some of the fun things I found that are now on my wish list. Not only are we currently moving into a new studio, but we’re also undertaking a massive home office overhaul, so I think some of these accessories (some functional, some frivolous) are must-haves for the reorganization!

vintage desktop accessories from Hello Victory (LOVE this little shop! Keep up with their newest finds on their blog here)

stylish and functional desktop accessories from russell and hazel

feminine desktop accessories from seejanework.com

functional storage from ikea and cb2

We have some big news!

This weekend, we will be moving to a new studio! While we’ve loved our location in downtown Kirkland in the Brooks Building, we’re very excited to announce that we’re moving to a new, larger space! We’ll still be in downtown Kirkland – only a block away from our old location. (Literally – old address: 613 Market, new address: 730 Market).

We’re moving to a second floor studio and will be sharing the studio space with the talented ladies of Woodland Flowers. More details to follow, including before and after photos!

The move is exciting, but somewhat bittersweet, since we’ll be leaving the studio we’ve been in for the past 2 years. It has served us well – but we’ve very excited to be moving on to new digs! MORE DETAILS COMING SOON!

I’ve been rethinking our studio recently – I think it is due for some new, fresh changes. I’m thinking lots of white (combined with the some of the dark brown furniture we already have), clear acrylic accessories, succulents, and some new storage.

left to right, top to bottom:

ikea docksta table | succulents photo from brides.com | cb2 lumiere pillar holders | west elm scoopback chair | cb2 sidecar high dining table | west elm canvas storage bins | cb2 beaker glass pitcher | cb2 zombie tumblers | cb2 format tray

Nope.

I am in awe of this craft room belonging to crafty intentions.

Those of you who read this blog regularly know that I am in a never-ending quest for organization in our own studio, and this photo {posted on modish} totally inspires me to get my rear in gear. I especially love the aqua and red color scheme.