It was maybe a year or two ago when I was talking to my husband saying that I really wanted a studio space to work out of. I had been working from home for the past 5 years and even though I LOVE it and cannot complain because I am lucky to be able to call my dining room table my office desk..I needed a change and wanted to be around people and other creatives. I felt like I was working everyday and feeling more and more alone. SO ! Even if it was a 1 bedroom apartment down the street, or a back house somewhere I was always searching. But nothing would come up.
Then one day at a cafe on Larchmont, I was chatting with my friend and telling her about this dream of mine and she mentioned she was looking for a space too! That’s where it all started! Never really thought it would come true…but come to find out I had other freelancer/creative friends whom were also looking into a studio space just so they can have a place to go and work!Thats how I got two more of my friends involved ,also including my friends husband!
A week before this cafe meet up I had gone to see a space in DTLA in the arts district that was a friend of my sister in laws. She is a successful photographer and was renting this amazing spot with two other photographers. Well, after she showed us around I went ahead and talked to the building manager and had a little more of a detailed tour. There were about 5-7 spots open and wanted to get in there as fast as we could. Took application home and showed everyone photos, but not everyone was in LA at the time and it was hard to get a response. Week had gone by and I called the building to see if the unit we wanted was still available…it wasn’t. By then I had given up and started looking at other buildings around here…..again, nothing for the price/view/location that we wanted popped up. My heart was broken.
I had posted that I had a group of friends looking for space in DTLA and if anyone heard of anything to message me. Well!! My friend who owned a sneaker store in Beverly Hills was now into real estate and mentioned he would help. I gave him the info of the building we were originally looking at with our budget. He called the building just to check before looking elsewhere and got an appointment to do one last look around.
Come to find out, my friend who owned the sneaker store KNEW the building manager because she used to buy all here sneakers there growing up! It was a magical reunion happening in front of us!! She lite up and told us there was a unit we should see. That unit was better than what we had originally been looking at. And it just opened. And it was spacier. It was just perfect. We all looked at each other and said we wanted to sign the lease right away…so thats what we did! If it wasn’t for my friend, non of this would’ve happened. Was just meant to be. Am so grateful!
Its been almost three months and our studio just keeps getting better and better. Everyone bringing their own uniqueness to the space and it feels like we are all creating this one place together. It really does feel special being here and being able to share a space with your friends. Don’t know how I got so lucky!! SO very excited for the months to come. And hopefully we can stay here longer than a year and keep creating and building ourselves into what we want to be. My studio-mates are the bestest and couldn’t have asked for better people.
Here I hope to be more productive in everything! (designing/consulting/creating/youtube) and am hoping to being able to do workshops early next year after the baby is born. There are so many possibilities here, I am almost for sure I will think of more ways to use the space! CANNOT WAIT!!
