making new spaces.

so we're pretty much done with the closet project, at least for the time being.  plus, our house is pretty clean at the moment and it's a good time to snap some photos.  :)

I never get good before photos, but here's one from right before we painted and purchased our new bed.  these were Michael and I's closets:

awesome, I know.  please note the MVP paint can holding up one side of our old bed.  we first painted the room a lighter color, purchased a new rug to go under the new bed, and slowly but surely started cleaning things out.  fresh into a new year, we started figuring out how to make 'my side' of the closet into a studio space:

when we decided to get serious, I ordered a chair and some recording gear and we decided to gift each other nice Container Store Elfa closet systems for Valentine's Day.  the studio closet was our elfa guinea pig.  

at the end of the day, it didn't have a real 'back wall' yet and we were still missing some gear, but it was a great start:

fast forward a few more components and here's what the whole space looks like today:

I purchased all new curtains for the room from Target, and these matching long ones were available online.  I also got the lamps beside our bed and the one on the desk from Target:

We already had the metal tree wall hanging, I just painted it.

the booth:

I read from an iPad, and the monitor over there is connected to the laptop outside so I can control the display and record myself using the bluetooth trackpad/keyboard:

outside the booth is the laptop, the preamp, and the external hard drive.  this is pretty amazing, considering what it used to cost to build a studio and how bulky things used to be.

the most 'it'll do for now' component of our project that's sure to be futzed-with as we go along.  we had a tough time figuring out how to create a little 'box' to record in.  the enemy of soundproofing is air, so you really want something enclosed.  since this is a closet from the 50's, there's no chance of closing the door, so M cut off these wooden clothes rods, zip-tied them to the shelf, and they can be moved out to hold the sound blanket in it's proper place and create a little cozy but roomy space when you're inside recording.  

Michael's new-and-improved closet:

magz had just woken up from her nap.

my new and improved closet in the hallway (made way better by a great purging of unworn things):

a couple of other things I like in the room... these photos of the girls beside my bed (the aqua rolling nightstand came from ikea):

 and my little montage on the wall.  the framed art was, I believe, the first thing Maggie ever made that she named (Michael wrote 'A Scary Monster' and the date on the back).  the top left photo is Michael and I just before our celebratory "we're debt-free!" dinner, I took that photo of the girls in the middle, that family selfie is from the Thanksgiving Day Parade this year, and some dear friends framed an invitation to our wedding reception here in Houston.  You may notice that there's a lone wise man hanging out on my dresser - he's been MIA since christmas, and we just found him again.  the 'Do Small Things With Great Love' wall hanging was in the kitchen where I could see it multiple times a day, but Maggie's Wednesday night class calendar is there now so I'm still figuring out where it should go. 

and there you have it.

I'm still learning how to use the equipment and am honestly already plotting which preamp I'll purchase next, but I'm proud to have gotten this far and have high hopes for doing more work in my jammies in 2014 and beyond.

-m.y.