Portrait photographers have a favorite month (at least, most of the photographers I know, do) and that month is January. Fall brings as much work as a person can possibly handle and often, then some. We run around, ragged, helping to capture memories and create wonderful Christmas gifts for our clients. Then, when the last package is sent off with tender care, we turn to our own families and our own Christmases and Hanukkahs, again, running around, helping to create memories. Its a fruitful, but exhausting season, followed by the blessed January. Yay for January!

Since we moved our family from San Jose (the San Francisco Bay Area) to Milwaukee, Wisconsin (just north of Chicago, IL) life has been moving at the speed of a runaway train. We have had little time to get much done around our new home and our new offices. So I earmarked my beloved January as the time when I would tackle my loft office.

First step was for Brian to move out. He’s been sharing my office with me since we moved; an arrangement that really doesn’t work for either one of us. Not only is the space a bit crowded with the two of us and, often, at least a few children, but it is also a loud, chaotic space. As a loft above the family kitchen and looking over the living room, it can get pretty noisy up here. This arrangement works great for me, an ADD artist who thrives on chaos and noise (I must be doing at LEAST two things at a time, so filtering the chaos counts as one, work, as two. ) For my more left-brained husband (and also the one who answers the phone) our chaos-loft didn’t work AT ALL. He could barely concentrate with all the action. In addition, we have been struggling to “share” childcare for our last young one, Miss Lydie-bug, who attends preschool for just 2 hours, twice a week. “Sharing” her doesn’t work very well when the parent who is “off-duty” is 2 feet away from the one who is “on-duty”, for obvious reasons. It was time to make a split. I’ll have to blog again soon, and show you Brian’s office. It isn’t as pretty as mine; think furnace room and concrete. :/

So with a couple of trips to my beloved Ikea, some sorting and ingenuity, my multi-purpose, happy, kid-friendly, and creativity inducing “chaos-loft” is complete. I LOVE it!!

Here’s the space in full use by the family. My “desk” is actually a conference table, which leaves room for Lydia to play with her toys or color and the older kids can do their homework after school. We’ve already enjoyed a game of Trivial Pursuit up here, and there is a lot of room and even more coziness, making it the perfect game-spot.

Each side of the chimney has a little cozy space that we’ve put to use as Lydia’s hang out zones. Here is her “art corner”, complete with her new easel (a birthday gift from her siblings).

Here you can see how much room the table provides for multiple activities.

Lydia demonstrates her story corner. This girl can “read” as many as 40 books in one sitting; keeping her very busy while Mommy tries to get her work done.

Doncha’ just love this space? I sure do. Lots of storage, which I had little of before, but plenty of open space and room to “breathe”. You can see on the right, we have a low “counter” that Brian built to slide our storage boxes under, and also provides a place for Bug to play Legos and Calico Critters. My view is wonderful as well, with a lovely evergreen just outside the sliding doors, where a pair of cardinals loves to sit and “chat” with one another.