Work, Life, and the Space in Between

As many burgeoning small business owners know, the lines between home life and work life are not always clear. For me, the beginning of J’Adorn Designs happened on a weeknight while I was sitting on my couch and getting crafty at the coffee table. I made my very first macro braid necklace that night, and the business has stayed under this roof since then.

I often dream of what it would be like to have my own studio in a space that’s separate and dedicated solely to that purpose. Instead, I have a dining room/office/workshop in a one bedroom apartment. It works for me, but it’s not really pretty and it’s definitely not Pinterest-worthy.

I’m comforted to know that I’m not the only one suffering from studio-self-consciousness. Becka Robinson over at Life as an Artistpreneur articulated this sentiment perfectly in this post in which she discusses the dissonance between the beautiful dream workspaces that we long for and the practical, feasible spaces that we actually have.

She started The Real Space Project “to show off the real life spaces of real life artistpreneurs. In all of their un-styled, not-magazine-worthy glory.” I’m honored to have my workshop included in this project, imperfect and tiny though it may be. Below you’ll see the photo of my workshop that was featured in the project, but feel free to click on the link to see all of the other wonderful spaces from my fellow artistpreneurs!

{Check out the full post here.}

I’m thankful to Becka for creating this project, for reminding us of the value of our real life workspaces, and for highlighting the imperfect beauty (and power!) of a space that is more useful and effective than it is pristine.