Designing A Recording Studio (Re-designing an old space with a completely new look!)
I’m excited to finally be sharing this project! I helped Jake Roque design his 400 sq ft Los Angeles studio apartment and turn it into a recording studio that could work for his podcasts, music and videos and stay renter-friendly. You might remember Jake from a 2 part video I did with him where he was my personal trainer for a month! It was such a great experience for me, so this time I’m returning the favor and helping him settle into his new place.
This design was a really fun challenge for two reasons: 1. I’ve already designed this space before, but it was for the previous renter and with a completely different look. 2. Everything needed to be ultra-functional and as sound proof as possible. It also came with some not-as-fun challenges because — surprise— we were met with a pandemic halfway through!
You may remember this space from Episode 1 of Megan Nicole’s Adult(ed), where I helped them design a renter-friendly space on a budget! This is the exact same place, but Marissa moved out and Jake moved in! They had very different needs for the space, and different styles aesthetically too, so it was really fun to try to create a whole new concept in the same space. Here’s what it looked like last time I designed:
About halfway through this project, the pandemic hit, so we paused for a while to try to figure out how to handle the rest! I’m typically a little more hands on with the design process — I like to shop in stores, see the space a few times in person, play with different styling ideas for the final details, but due to the pandemic we went completely virtual, ordered everything online, and I actually didn’t see the decorated space in person until the day we filmed the final video! Jake sent me text updates, and we Facetimed a few times so I could see how things were looking as they arrived.
We started with a few mockups of what the space could look like. Jake wanted a big sofa that looked nice for videos, but was comfortable enough for guests to sleep on. I reached out to Joybird (you know they’re my fav!) who gifted us the best gray sectional (Briar Sectional in Taylor Felt Gray). We started with that and then worked on the rest of the layout from there.
It really all came together! The space feels bigger than I expected walking in, which I think is partially due to this giant area rug I found on Amazon. It’s 8 ft x 11 ft (currently on sale for $140!) and it’s a really nice flat weave subtle blue. It sections off this area really well and made everything feel nice and clean.
I feel like I have to note: We tried to keep our distance as much as possible while filming this and wore masks any time we needed to stand near one another. I am taking COVID seriously, but we also had deadlines to meet and wanted you to be able to hear us clearly for the videos :) Hope you understand!
One of my favorite parts of this space is this room divider. We were trying to think of a way to have a divider so that he could section off different areas to use it as a sound panel, video background, or just a privacy screen. Dividers are typically pretty pricy and a hanging divider wasn’t really an option anyways in a rental space. We ended up going with this IKEA clothing rack on wheels. Jake attached the sound boards to the clothing rack and then covered it all in black sheets. I think I may need to make one of these for my house now too!
I didn’t even know this until after we shot our videos, but this part of the sofa opens up for extra storage! Love a good hidden functional element :)
We added an artificial tree from Nearly Natural to liven up the corner! I like their trees because they are usually bendable to a more natural looking shape and look pretty real! You can use my code to get 15% off at Nearly Natural: “JulieTecson”
Here are links to everything!:
Joybird Briar Sectional (Color: Taylor Felt Gray)
Nearly Natural Artificial Tree
IKEA clothing rack (used for room divider)
Thanks so much to Joybird and Nearly Natural for partnering with us on this project!
And in case you missed it, here are the videos where Jake was my personal trainer for a month, and the video of the last time I transformed this space!