how one couple made a 64 sq ft office WORK

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text by  SHANI SILVER photography by  ASHLEY KELEMEN

We’ve already shared Rebekah Carey’s inspiring 200 square foot home with you. So when she came to us to let us know she’d just completed her workspace, we were prepared to be impressed. In just 64 square feet (yep!) Rebekah found room to store her props and supplies for her company, A&B Creative, as well as space for her husband’s delightful writing nook! Read on to find out how this small space master went to work.

HOW DID THIS PROJECT COME ABOUT? As we were completing our Bitty Berkeley Bungalow, my priorities were clearly shifting towards being able to be working from home more so that I was available for my daily walks with my Grandma, and however she may need me throughout the day. Also, as we added a third rescue pup to our brood, bringing them all to my shared office space/ studio or leaving them home alone was certainly less appealing. So, I got rid of my little studio space and started searching Craigslist for a smaller shed to go behind our little house that I could transform into prop storage and as an office for Alex and I.

WHAT WERE YOUR GOALS FOR THIS NEW SPACE? I wanted to create a space that mirrored the carriage house we call home and its aesthetic, as well as be somewhere I could organize my props to easily pull from for shoots. It had to be budget-savvy, as bright as possible since it is truly tiny at 64sq feet, and as we had with our little house I wanted to use as many reclaimed materials as possible to give it a personalized and lived-in feel that sheds don’t typically come equipped with.

WE LOVE YOUR APPROACH TO SOURCING MATERIALS. WHERE DID YOU FIND THE COMPONENTS OF THIS OFFICE? The shed/office I found on Craigslist, Alex made a herculean effort and actually ended up disassembling it at the previous owner’s house completely by himself (not recommended). Once we brought it home we needed to create a base to lift it up so that we could avoid dry-rot or having to lay a cement slab. This worked out perfectly for the furriest of our three who, when avoiding voice commands, likes to hide just out of reach under there with her hoard of sticks.

We picked up the cement blocks, plywood and 2×4 platform pieces (which we just happened to find already made exactly our size!) from our favorite local reuse resource, Urban Ore. We also picked up reclaimed redwood tongue and groove siding and the rest of the insulation we needed from there as well. Craigslist came in handy for the free flooring we needed.

The vintage secretary was one of the first “adult” furniture pieces that I invested in. I had my first design job down the street and fell in love with it one day. I came back a few days later with my cashed paycheck and the change I scraped together literally in a ziplock bag to buy it. The drop-down desk (and second workspace in the office) was in my last little home office when we were in Oakland, and was great to be able to reuse since it wasn’t going in our Bitty Berkeley Bungalow. The same goes for the pipe shelving we had had in our Oakland bedroom before, I made it work for this space by cutting down the length and painting the pipes white.

WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE IN BRINGING THIS TOGETHER? For me, downsizing was satisfying but did not come naturally. Being a stylist where you never know what you might need for a shoot or project made designing this space a lot more intentional. Good news/bad news was that I already had everything (furniture-wise) that I needed for the space.

I took the drop-down desk from my little closet office from our last place and used it as an under window console table and second work space if there are two people working in the office at once. A vintage trunk holds all of my crafts, the vintage secretary is another workspace and holds even more paperwork, cards, photos, magazines, etc. that I didn’t want to store the bulk of in our little house.

AND THE BIGGEST TRIUMPH? Making it all fit was definitely the biggest triumph! I still have some storage bins that need to be sorted, but I also got rid of about four big boxes of props that weren’t my style anymore.

I was also pretty happy with one of the world’s easiest DIY’s that I created by placing a remnant of marble inside the top drawer of the secretary so that there was enough room for a writing space and a laptop to be another work surface.

WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR SOMEONE LOOKING TO CREATE SOMETHING SIMILAR? If you’re going to make a tiny office out of a shed (or another less conventional space) treat it just like building a house: insulate it, make sure it has proper flooring and roofing so that you’re comfortable enough throughout the year.

HOW HAS THIS SPACE BEEN THE MOST USEFUL? I have been lucky enough to have a lot of my shoots at our place since we moved and being able to walk just behind our house to retrieve props is incredible! Having this second tiny space also allows our house to be a lot cleaner and more organized. It also didn’t make me feel like I was making a lot of sacrifices by having to part with things I didn’t have room for, but still really loved. The shed office also allows us to have a space for myself or Alex to write without distraction.

HOW HAS THIS SPACE BEEN THE MOST USEFUL? I have been lucky enough to have a lot of my shoots at our place since we moved and being able to walk just behind our house to retrieve props is incredible! Having this second tiny space also allows our house to be a lot cleaner and more organized. It also didn’t make me feel like I was making a lot of sacrifices by having to part with things I didn’t have room for, but still really loved. The shed office also allows us to have a space for myself or Alex to write without distraction.

WHAT IS THE BEST REACTION YOU’VE HAD TO THIS SPACE THUS FAR? The best reaction I had to the space was when I didn’t tell Alex that I was planning to make the office also a writing shed for him (a fantasy he has had for years that wouldn’t have been a possibility at any of our other places), and I surprised him one day when he got home by having a little Yoda statue and a picture of us on the desk with a chair all set up as a writing station for him.

SEE MORE FROM A&B CREATIVE!