If you follow my Facebook page you probably saw that a few months ago my studio in The Market Common went through some pretty major changes. It has been my dream for years to have a portrait studio that truly fit my colorful personality and gave me the ability to use the type of professional portrait lighting that I prefer. This past October I was finally able to make the necessary changes to make my vision a reality. I am so excited to finally share my story with you! 🙂
After searching all over Myrtle Beach for the perfect studio partner I finally found Hannah Ruth, who is amazing at what she does and shares the same business style and dedication to excellence that I do. It was important for me to bring in a partner that not only had the same level of commitment and business morals as myself, but also someone that I could get along with on a personal level.
We really worked our tails off to get the studio done in time for our Grand Re-Opening on Halloween! It took countless hours of labor, a 7 hour round trip to IKEA during the biggest flooding event this area has ever seen, at least 200 CommandStrips, an awesome pink couch and I don’t even know how many layers of paint.
You’ll have to excuse the quality of these images, they were taken with my iPhone. (I went a little Instagram crazy during all of this!) It took us about a month to get everything finished and I’m pretty sure 1/3 of that was waiting for paint to dry, LOL!
My vision was to turn this beautiful 1,300 square foot storefront into 3 rooms… a back storage room, a private shooting room, and an amazing lounge area/office space that really caught your eye when you walked through the door. First impressions are everything so it was important to me to make the front room really pop. I chose grey for the floor and the walls with crisp white furniture and lots of pink accents. Like that couch… how ah-ma-zing is that pink couch?! (PS- I want one for my house.) (PPS- Wait until you see the sequin pillows!)
I used 2 IKEA shelving units together to create a wall that separated the front room from the shooting space. Getting rid of the abundance of natural light was one of my biggest concerns, so this divider helped me block out a ton of the window light that was spilling into the camera room.
And because I know everyone loves seeing photos of my seriously cute kid, here’s an iPhone snapshot of her being ridiculously adorable during one of our many, many long days in October.
Check back here Monday for part 2 of the redesign story… with images of the finished studio! 🙂
