The Studio
After a little over a year of being in business and renting out other places for our photoshoots, we finally have a studio that we can call our own in the heart of downtown Olympia!
Back in January, we began the process of searching for a studio of our own. After weeks of searching online and viewing several spaces, none of them really felt like the place we had hoped for. Then we found it. A cozy little space nestled above the historic Capitol Theater. Although we had seen the space listed online in the past, the timing had never been quite right between growing our business and everything else we had going on in life. We immediately reached out to the realtor for a viewing and signed our papers the following week on February 1st. The stars had finally aligned, and the wait to find the perfect place to call “home” was over!
When we initially took over the space, calling it underwhelming may have been a bit of an understatement. With plain white walls and light grey trim, the only thing we really loved about the design were the 100-year old wood floors that brought the only ounce of character into the space.
Step one in the journey to turn it into the studio of our dreams was nailing down a color palate and to begin painting. This was by far Jesse’s least favorite part lol. For the primary color, we went with a deep mauve-y purple. We also added two accent walls into the space to give us a variety of scenes to shoot in; one matte black wall accented with wood trim frames we made ourselves, and another accent wall that we painted a light, sandy pink tone. This brought the whole space to life, and it was really starting to feel a little more like OUR space. After what felt like forever (it was only a month, but the impatience to finish was real), painting was complete!
Next, came the decorating. This was easily Jenn’s favorite part of the setup, and after many trips to various stores and even more Amazon orders, we had everything we needed to fill the studio. We brought over the purple couch that we had from our previous in-home studio and covered parts of the floor with different rugs (including a gorgeous cow skin that Jesse bought). Then the viral mirror from TikTok (had to have this), a canopy bed, two very special antique “Hollywood” swag lights from the 70’s, and a vanity. We spent a few more weeks getting everything setup, making sure that everything was placed perfectly, adding little decorations and lots of plants. Everything had finally come together, and we now have the perfect space for our future sessions. It’s dark and moody, gets plenty of natural light, and is ready for us to make some wonderful art for our clients.
Some unique things we love about the space include the vanity, which will not only be a great spot to take photos in, but will also provide an area for our clients to comfortably do hair and makeup. In the future, we hope to have an onsite hair and make-up artist made available that will also be able to use this space as well. We also custom made a dressing screen that will give our clients the privacy they need to get ready for their shoot or change outfits in between sets/poses.
In the coming weeks we will have an entire area with a back drop set up that will allow us to start shooting more creative sets and portraits. We also plan to add in a claw foot tub scene to the studio, and we are currently working out how to build a “rain” set for what we like to call the “Wet Set.” As our business continues to grow, we plan to add in many more things to enhance our clients’ shoot experience, but it is finally complete! We couldn’t be happier with how things turned out, and we want to say thank you to everyone that has supported us through this journey. We can’t wait for what the rest of the year will bring, and we hope you come along with us for the ride.
To all of our Muses, thank you again!
