Surprise! It has been 9 months in the making so far, but I finally broke ground on my new backyard custom studio last week! I am so excited to share all about my new studio space with you all and take you along the building adventure. It is my first time having anything built, so the whole process is new to me, but I figure if you are anything like me, then you might be interested to see the building process.

The Process

Let’s start at the beginning! I currently work out of my house, but the last year or two I have really outgrown the space I have here and Kailo Chic is taking over a lot of the downstairs portion of the house. Last summer I knew that the time had come to move my business outside our home. After 13 years of having in my home, it was a huge step! But after looking at the rediculous price of office space here in Austin (the cheapest places I could find within a 15 minute drive where between $2000-$3000 per month!), I decided it would be best to build a studio in our backyard.

Our house is on close to 1/2 an acre, so we have the space, and I could build out exactly a custom studio to be exactly what I need (think skylights and tons of windows on one side and a big blank wall for styling on the other). Perfect for photography! So I found a builder in August, we drew up plans, submitted them to the city, and just finally got HOA approval! We have officially broken ground and the studio should be complete by mid-end of July! Just in time for the rush of the fall and winter months!

The Design

Now I am sure you are all curious on the design of the building, at least I know I would be! It will be 700 sqft open concept space with a bathroom on one end being the only separate room. Next to the bathroom will be a storage space with tons of shelves for my props and craft supplies. The building itself will have 10′ high ceilings at the front with black trimed windows and french doors, and 15′ ceilings in the back against the huge white wall that I will use to style all my photoshoots. There will also be a concrete slab front porch spanning the entire front of the studio that I hope to either tile with a fun patterned tile or DIY with a faux painted tile.

The exterior of the custom studio will be white siding with black trim and black windows to match our courtyard space and shed. It will have a shed style sloped roof with two skylights from Velux so that the lighting inside is perfect. Here are some inspiration photos I found to give you an idea of the feel I am going for. Albeit not as fancy as these houses.

Looking Forward

We don’t currently have a pool, but the hope is that once we pay off the studio in a few years, we can put one in. Hence the pool house photo.

But we still have a long way to go to get there. No worries, though, I plan to take you all along for the ride! Here are the first few images of the work being done in our backyard. There’s also a before shot so that you can see what it looked like to start.

Woohoo! I am so excited! As I type this, the plumbing pipes are in! The ground is prepped for support beams that will be laid under the concrete slab foundation. Once those are in place and the weather clears a bit, it will be time to pour the slab. Then we will be on to framing and finish out. Be sure to check my Instagram stories as I plan to do more frequent updates on the building process there. But I will be back once the framing has begun to give you all another peek!