Tuesday, March 24, 2015

My photo studio

Hi, everyone!  Thank you for the sweet comments on Ashford's room, we are very happy with it and Ash seems to love it, too.  I got a question about the shelf brackets - they are these ones from Home Depot.
Today I'm sharing my photo studio space with you all.  The gory 'before' details are in this post, but the full write up and all the good after photos are on my photography blog here.  If you wouldn't mind clicking over, your comments are much appreciated!  Here is the room before -
This bonus room is on the lower level of the house, the door leads out to the backyard.  This was part of an addition and it was used as a hobby/workshop area.  A lot needed to happen in here to make it useable for a studio!  I had to remedy the ugly tan paint, change out all the almond outlets and switches to white, and also do something about the gross screen door. 
Seriously, this thing was rotting apart!
The genius people we bought the house from had just sprayed the old burgundy paint all over it, too.  I suppose they probably thought they were replacing it, then never got around to it. 
I also LOVE the beautiful detail painting they did on the door.  I really wish I had gotten an up close photo, it was dismal.
Wait a second...here you go.  Beautiful!
Anyway, we replaced the screen door with the same full view door we put on the front of the house.  The main door also got primed...but I haven't decided what shade to paint the door.  It has to be light and not create color casts when open into the studio...but I don't think white looks right.  I'm sort of in a bind because when that little window is painted the house trim color on the outside, (whoops!  I guess I missed a window) it will seriously clash with the storm door frame.  So, I can't paint the door to match the storm door because then the window will look really bad.  I realize this is a dumb problem, but I really stew about paint colors!  I might just stick with a cream or something. 
So much better!  I also want to replace the big ass motion light with a pretty light.  And a more attractive hose setup.  And we have some landscaping work to do on the stone retaining wall there....always something!  So back to the room...here it is in process.
It was like a breath of fresh air painting over that tan.  And it literally was, because I added a 'clean linen' glade scent packet to the gallon of paint.  I am pretty happy with the way it worked, it was VERY strong for a few weeks then just faded away.  I might use it again, if I had a musty or stinky room to paint.  More almond outlets and switches for the pile....
Here is the room set up for my Christmas mini sessions after most of the work was done last November, but before I mounted my 9 foot roll of seamless paper...
I used this old coat rack from a thrift store to hold props.  I painted the back white, then stained the pegs espresso before spraying with poly. 
I was pretty happy with this setup, and got some great photos, but the bed was just too big to move around in there.   I took it out and dismantled it until Ashford was ready for his big boy bed.  Now, it's so much bigger and nicer in here!
I have a simple coffee table covered with a faux fur rug for sit down poses, and I absolutely love my seamless paper backdrop!  On my wish list is new flooring in here, some sort of ceiling with new lighting, and a pretty arm chair to use as a prop.  Check out more after photos and a few adorable test shots of Ashford on my photography blog here.  Thanks for looking!

2 comments:

  1. How awesome that the house had this space - with it's own entry, at that! It looks great - fresh and bright!

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  2. Argh...all of our outlets are almond (on wait, I lied. Some are black!) and I am afraid to switch them out. Your pile makes me want to try again.

    The studio looks awesome!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for reading....your comments mean a lot to me!
Sara