Inside My Studio: A Peek at My Process (and the Beautiful Mess That Comes With It)

I'm blessed to have a studio that's all my own — tucked into what used to be our third garage. (If you missed the transformation, I shared the whole before-and-after in my Instagram highlights, and the tips I picked up along the way are in my blog series, "A Blog Series Just in Time for Spring Cleaning.") What started as an empty bay is now packed wall-to-wall with color: paintings of faces with too-rosy cheeks, shelves of paint tubes and brushes, fabric scraps, and more half-finished projects than I'll ever admit to.

## The Space

The studio has everything a creative space "should" have — a desk for small projects, two big work tables, and a full wall dedicated to easels. And yet, almost without exception, I end up sitting cross-legged on the floor, surrounded by a rug full of paper scraps, paint bottles, and whatever I'm working on that day. I don't know exactly why it happens this way every time, but there's something about being down low, surrounded by the work from every angle, that feels right.

## The Rhythm

Right now, I keep one full day a week set aside just for painting — no exceptions if I can help it. Beyond that, I'll sneak away for an evening here and there, or steal a Saturday morning when the house is quiet. The thing that matters most isn't how much time I have, it's that the time is *uninterrupted*. Creative flow doesn't show up on command, and it definitely doesn't show up if I'm checking my phone every ten minutes.

## The Warm-Up

I rarely walk in and start painting cold. There's a little ritual that gets me there:

• **Simple tasks first** — prepping surfaces, laying down a base coat, the kind of low-stakes work that doesn't require a decision yet
  - **A few quiet minutes** with a journal, or flipping through a stack of my favorite art books and magazines
  - **A walk around the yard** when I need a reset or a spark of inspiration
  - **A candle, always lit** — it's become a little signal to my brain that it's time to create
  - **Music sometimes, silence often** — I've learned not to force either one; some days call for one and not the other
  

## The Mess

Here's the part nobody puts on a studio tour but everyone who makes things will recognize: the mess. It builds fast — scraps, paint bottles, half-cut paper, tools scattered across the rug — and it does not clean itself up. Honestly, it usually lingers far longer than I'd like to admit, because cleaning up never feels as good as starting the next thing. I've made peace with it. The mess is evidence that something real is happening in here.

## Why I Share This

It's easy to see a finished piece and assume the process behind it was tidy and linear. Mine never is. It's candlelight and yard walks and a full day blocked off on the calendar, but it's also paint-stained rugs and a floor I can't see for a week at a time. If you're building your own creative space — whether it's a garage, a corner of a bedroom, or a kitchen table you have to clear off every night — I hope this is a reminder that the "mess" is allowed to be part of the process, not a sign you're doing it wrong.

If you want to see how this space came together from an empty garage, check out the transformation story in my Instagram highlights, and don't miss my Spring Cleaning studio series for tips on keeping a creative space functional (even when it never looks "done").

Thanks for following along — more soon from the floor of my studio. 💛

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