It has always been a dream and goal of mine to have a studio (away from home) to work from. I’ve wandered into many studios and envied them – messy or not, it’s a space to be creative! The fear to commit to a rental agreement is one I cannot deny – I think every small business both looks both forward to the day they outgrow home and dreads this same growing pain. I feel quite lucky to have met Keri Muller from Simple Intrigue who was also looking for a studio to share in the same area of Cape Town. For over a year we visited premises and none of them felt right. I was close to giving up and had resigned to the fate that for 2014 I was probably going to have to give up a little bit more space at home for WREN to grow.

Early in December I said as much to Keri:- that I would wait until one of spaces in this exact location became available (because I thought they were all currently rented and the space looked nice). She replied: “Oh, this morning one listed on gumtree to rent I think!” The next day we went to see the place and although it was in a really bad condition (with Ivy growing through windows and the ceiling – see Instagram picture below), we both agreed that it was a space we could make work and wanted to make work.

The next month, just 30 days after deciding I was alright with the idea to keep working from home we were moving in!

We still have not moved in properly – there are boxes everywhere and it is a bit demakaar as South African’s would say (meaning happy chaos) – but I love it! To come home to a fresh space is wonderful and even if it is only a short-term joy, I am enjoying it for now.

Below: This is our workroom (with Salome).