Come on then, nosey.

My partner, James, and I are both, well, partners in two businesses; I run sketcHiness as well, which is a fledgling, and he has invested in a brilliant graphic design company which is really starting to take off for the designer. (Don't click that link if you don't want to, it's not an advert - it's just a very nice display of his work :)

It's safe to say that business holds a small but very significant place in our relationship and the home routine. When we moved to our new house we had enough space to do everything that we wanted as well as create what was going to be a smaller studio / office space for me (and him at times too). Well Christmas was approaching and as we were having a fair few visitors, we needed to utilise the space so that room quickly became a "We'll just put these things in here until after Christmas" area. Everything was boxed and labelled but I was feeling crowded before I even had a chance to get in there and get sketching!

This week I made a firm decision that things were going to be eschewed form my quirkily-shaped room and find their correct homes in various other rooms of the house and the attic space, which we recently found to be very spacious, despite its place under out steeply sloped roof (the main reason the building is grade 3 listed). Having announced this to James, he leapt into action and came out with something I never expected - turning the other 2nd storey room (one being our bedroom) into the office. I loved it! It's a nice big room with a view over next door's chicken and duck field, black beams and cosied up inside the other part of the roof.

Last night we darkened IKEA's doors armed with the company card and shopped our tax deductable home office furniture. Usually we play the game of "We live here" a la 500 Days Of Summer because James has never really been allowed to play in public before, but last night we got there at 8.15 and it closes at 9pm - so we were on a mission.

We managed to kit out the whole place - minus some "We'll get them as and when we need them" drawers, and started building last night. I'm actually typing this from that workspace as James - being the genius that he is has already sorted out the phones, screens, WiFi and internet connection.

I like having a nose at other people's work spaces, so I have posted some progress pictures and will add more when I've kitted the place out properly in my bits and pieces :)

Take some of these.

Add one of these.

Leave to settle until office resembles this; go to bed.

Add some flavour to the set up - Apple is, of course, optional.

Spice desk with some work and a freaking cool desk calendar / pad

Garnish with Apple Mac (if available) plus wireless keyboard and Wacom tablet.

Finally add a view of ducks, chickens & shed and the rolling hills beyond

(only viewable in the day)

If you're feeling particularly brave, feel free to add two felines, but be aware that they will sit on everything.

In the last photo you can see the bank of printers we have to the right hand side - there's a standard document printer, a scanner and photocopier and out of sight to the right of this picture is my beloved Epson printer, God of reprographics!

There you have it for now; I have yet to import all the paper, card, files, ink, paint, tools and stock from the smaller room, but as we are waiting for a couple of cupboards to be delivered, it seems daft to bring them into the space just for now. I will have to keep trekking to the other side of the house to get them.