Home Studio {Kingman, AZ Newborn Photographer}

Something that I have dreamt of, ever since my little business began back in October 2013, was to have my own studio.  Whether it be outside of my home or inside my home, I didn’t care, as long as I had a designated space to run my business.  While a good portion of my business is done outdoors, on location, I still wanted to have a space indoors for my tiniest of clients….my newborns.

For the past two years, whenever I have had a newborn session, my kitchen doubled as my studio space.  I hated it.  I hated having to clean my entire house before every session, hated having to move my kitchen table, chairs, and high chair out of the kitchen, hated having to heat up my entire house, and loathed having to lug every newborn prop from my garage to the kitchen, only to clean it all up and lug it right back to the garage hours later.  But most of all, I hated kicking my entire family out of the house every time I had a session.

About a year into business, I started talking to my husband about turning the garage into a studio space for me. Of course, like most men, the answer was no, because that was his “domain”. Eventually though, he got tired of helping me clean the house before every session, and was tired of relocating himself and our four children to my parent’s house for hours at a time, so after about 6 months of trying to talk him into it, he finally caved. 😉

He is an elementary school teacher, so he used this past summer to build himself a shed in the backyard, to store all of his stuff that was currently in the garage, to get it ready for the big transformation.

This project of mine is quite a personal one, so excuse me while I get a tad personal in this post, but I just can’t help it, so here goes….

My dad has been “retired” for about 13 years now, ever since he had a debilitating stroke, leaving the left side of his body basically useless.  The stroke didn’t stop him from trying to live life the same way he had lived it before the stroke, though.  However, projects that used to only take a couple weeks to complete became more time consuming, sometimes taking months to finish, but nevertheless, he was able to finish them with little help from family and friends.

Here’s the thing about my dad – he is quite the Jack of All Trades and can do just about anything. When I was younger, I remember hearing of his jobs as a construction worker, plumber, maintenance guy, and EMT.  Heck, I even remember hearing about when he used to work in a mine and literally got buried alive once!  And because he knew so much about almost everything, I was that girl who knew how to light the pilot light on our furnace, how to install a tile floor, how to check the oil in my car, and was never afraid to get my hands dirty on a remodeling/DIY project.

Over the last few years, I started to realize that he wouldn’t always be around forever, and that I needed to soak up as much as I could learn from him, for as long as I could. The work we did on this studio are some of my favorite times with my dad, working alongside him, talking to him…just being around him.  During those couple months it really sunk in how much love he has for me, and how he would do anything to help me be successful and happy.  Some days I felt like the studio meant more to him than me, because he was so determined to work on it nearly every day, and on the day that it was finished, he beamed with pride.  This studio means so much to me, but even more so because it was something that my dad and I built together. 🙂

We started working on the studio space in September.  Of course I chronicled the entire thing from start to finish, and couldn’t wait to share it with ya’ll! 🙂

The “before” picture, when it was still a dirty, cluttered garage…

And while the walls were starting to go up, I was working on a little project of my own!

And while the sheet rock was going up on the newly framed walls, my youngest was getting into some trouble of her own! 😉

We put the sheet rock up, took down the garage door, and then started putting in a humongous window (I am a natural light photographer) and a door, so I could have a completely separate entrance from our house.

Our youngest two were always right there for all of the action! 😉

Then I had my dad safely attach plywood to one of the walls for my special project. 

Here I am, working on the floor part of my pallet wood backdrop/floor drop. I seriously loved that dang nail gun. 😉

The finished product!!

When I first told people that I wanted an entire wood wall made from free wood pallets, everyone warned me how hard it would be, almost in a deterring way.  I knew it would be hard – my dad and I made several trips back and forth to a business who gave away free wood pallets, my husband and I then cut them all apart (leaving the nail heads intact to keep that rustic look that I love!), I then sanded the ones that were going to be part of my floor, and stained some of the lighter pieces, before finally arranging them by width and nailing them in place.  Yes, it was a TON of work, but check out how amazing it looks! It is rustic and antique-looking, which are both things that I love, so it was totally worth it. 🙂

**Disclaimer: The entire wall is bolted to the concrete floor, as well as the ceiling and studs in the walls. We had safety in mind throughout the entire construction of this wood wall.

And now that you have seen the work that went on behind the scenes, here is the finished product… 🙂

In case you are wondering what the sizes are of this cluster of canvases, they are (top row, from left to right): 16×20, 20×24, 16×20, and (bottom row, from left to right): 8×12, 10×20, and 8×12

The canvas on this wall is a 30×40.

My tieback/bonnet holder is actually an old window frame that I found in an abandoned farmhouse from one of my trips back home to Minnesota. I knew I wanted to do something with it someday, and I think it adds a little rustic and unique touch to my space. 🙂

In celebration of my studio, I will be offering Milestone Mini Sessions (includes 3 digital images) during the month of January for only $99! These sessions can be for any age, ages 3 to 12 months old. Contact me for more details.