Are you on a downsizing journey for your home? Whether you want to live smaller or just minimize the clutter, it can be truly life-changing to edit your life in any number of ways.

I’m on my own downsizing path these days with my design studio and I’m finally beginning to see the light!

Things are looking good in my new place and I’ve been sharing some progress on my Instagram stories.

Don’t worry, we recycled. This is from almost 20 years of living in this house and well, I like to experiment around here sometimes. :-/

It’s taken a lot longer than I thought. My husband is the one putting this all together for me.

First of all, we had to get rid of all the stuff in the back bay garage area, where my new office is to be.

It literally took 3 months to do that. It had his workbench and all kinds of shop type stuff as well as just junk storage and, well, about 50 cans of paint. ;-)

Between both our moms’ health issues with hospitalization and moving them, we both had to take our time.

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We wanted to add value to our property with this home office

Here’s where we started, with the back end of the garage, finally cleared out.

When we started analyzing things, we really wanted to have this new space included in our conditioned square footage, when we sold our property some years from now.

That meant permitting and inspections and making sure all was properly documented.

We decided we’re not just going to throw up a wall, install an a/c unit and stack up my samples in there. This was going to be a proper office where I would spend a lot of time, not just a garage-storage-sample library I’d be ducking in and out of during the day.

The A/C Unit is MOST important!

My husband did all the research for conditioning the space and we arrived at a mini-split unit. With the heat and humidity we have around here, it had to be cool or I wouldn’t go in there.

The compressor is on the outside wall (side wall of our house) and it is so quiet and cool! It’s operated with a remote and also has heat for winter. It can stay on all the time, set on whatever temp I want.

Here’s the mini-split A/C unit we just had installed after we had the work done so far.

To be up to code, we needed more electrical outlets, and if I was going to work there, I really needed better lighting.

And guess what? There is no insulation in most garage walls and there wasn’t any here. So, if it was going to be conditioned, it needed insulation in the walls and ceiling.

All the sheetrock had to come off, the electrical had to be installed, insulation, and then new sheetrock.

Here’s the pic with all the sheetrock removed and the wall framed out. For a small job, this was turning out to be quite time consuming.

This space could have so many different uses for future buyers.

As it has finally started to come together, we’re really happy that we’ve gone all in with the whole redo, because we are seeing how this space could be used by future buyers for so many different activities!

A craft room, potting shed, woodwork shop, sewing room, mancave, gaming room, even just conditioned storage comes to mind! With the natural light coming in through a window and the back door, it makes this room so desirable as an add-on space.

The best thing is that when you see how much I spent on rent for my office space over a 10 year period here at this link……

…..you will see how this investment of around $10,000 that will actually improve the value of our property, is a great idea.

That $10,000 is less than I paid for half a year in office rent, for most of the years I was renting.

So, we are finishing things up here, hoping to be done in a few weeks.

Lighting and Flooring for my home office

Four of these LED lights were installed.

They are installed with a remote driver. The Kelvin or color temperature of the light is adjustable too. I opted for 3000K. It has a nice color that isn’t too yellow and most resembles that of my client’s homes.

For my flooring, I’m going to go with LVP, luxury vinyl plank flooring that looks like wood.

We’re going to have it floated, not glued down, so that someone can easily remove it if they want to turn this into a garage again someday.

(By the way, I still have a 2 car garage. This was space for a 3rd car, supposedly, which most people just used for storage and stuff, in this floor plan.)

Then the big task will be tackling my storage unit, making decisions about reducing more samples I have stored right now.

Even if don’t ever take on any more full service projects, I use a lot of my samples to answer questions from blog readers and my Designed in a Click consultations, so many of those samples do come in handy.

I’m looking forward to this….

I’m going to get into flat lays on Instagram. I’ll have the perfect place to set them up, at the window, with all that lovely natural light, and a giant white marble cutting board I inherited from my MIL. It will make a great backdrop for some sample combinations I’ve been dying to do in a more formal way.

My last studio I had for two years had fluorescent lighting and although we had windows, there was an overhang that cast shadows and made our space rather dark most of the time. It’s all about the light, you know?

I’m going to get a desktop that raises for standing and then this cool device, a balance board, for helping me move a little bit when at the standing desk.

Fluidstance balance board available on Amazon

I’m really looking forward to this new nook of my own, where I can lock the door and delve into all things design, while enjoying the view of my own backyard. Best of all, I don’t have to drive to get there. :-)

Mitzi’s book on “right-sizing” for the stages of your life is on sale now on Amazon.

So, that’s my current downsizing situation!

I’m following several of my friends who are on the same path.

One is Mitzi Beach who has written an informative book on navigating this life-changing path. It’s available on Amazon and you should check it out!

I will be breaking down the costs of this remodel in an upcoming blogpost, after I share the reveal.

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Moving my office back home on a downsizing journey - I'm almost there!