The Making Of A Studio

The studio you visit today was not the studio we started out with here at Pretty Little Acorns. My first studio was in a lean to conservatory on the side of our house here on North Sea Lane. The site where the studio is now situated was home to an old greenhouse and shed. We removed those and set about building a functioning workshop.

My husband by trade is a software developer but is extremely good at turning his hand to anything so I was not too worried when he said he would build my studio instead of buying a ready made office or turning a shed in to a workshop.

Over many long weekends we worked like crazy using second hand panels we purchased from a Warburton’s coldstore for sale on Ebay. We used the panels for the walls and floor and bought most of the windows from either Ebay or Swaps and Sales sites. The roof and the cedar cladding were the most expensive items during the building but well worth the money as once stained, the look of the building was transformed when clad.

Initially we did not have a bathroom, this was added as an extension during the first lockdown along with an office for my husband. The original plan was that he was going to have a section of the workshop for his office but when he discovered how noisy and messy the life of a Silversmith is, he decided it would be best to build himself a little office to keep his work neat and organised.

I really love my studio. I have an area where I sit and work that looks over the garden. Whilst getting Alexa to play my favourite music of the day, I watch the squirrels chasing each other around the large blue cedar tree, blue tits picking berries from the holly bush and occasionally a Heron stalking the next door neighbour’s pond for his breakfast. We have a library area in the studio along with, a stamping area, a sawing area, a soldering area, a sit and design and socialise area, a drilling area, a polishing area, a bathroom come photographic studio and most importantly a tea/coffee bar.

We recently added decking to the studio so we can now sit outside on a sunny day an have lunch or a coffee break. I feel lucky that the studio is surrounded by beautiful trees and flowers and in turn lots of inspiration for our work from being amongst nature. On a rainy day, the sound of the rain on the roof is quite a soothing sound yet in the heat of summer the patio doors are flung open and the birdsong fills the studio.

I hope you get to visit one day soon and enjoy this space as much as I do.