- [Man] This space.
(light electronica music)
How could we possibly make this space
the perfect office and studio?
Well, it requires a lot of trips to Home Depot.
Where I first bought these big yellow tools,
that presumably were exactly what I needed
to start doing this.
(light electronica music)
Quickly, the space devolved into chaos.
It hit rock bottom
on the day when there was just a giant pile of cabinets
appliances, drywall, and heaven knows what else,
all stacked right here in the middle of this front room.
It's moments like these
when you wonder if this is all ever gonna come together,
but then the building starts.
More Home Depot and shipments.
So many shipments,
so many boxes.
There's hard wood floor.
There's weird electrical problems that come up
and suddenly you're paying your electrician
way more than you hoped you'd be paying him.
- I see.
- But slowly it starts to come together.
It starts to look
like the kind of space that you want to be in,
work in, create in,
but there's still a long way to go.
Next comes the visit to a rug warehouse
where a man who came from Afghanistan 30 years ago
shows you a million rugs
and you decide how you'll cover your floors.
And will these rugs actually dampen
the acoustics of the room, so we can get good audio.
I sure hope so.
Before you know it,
the owner has forcibly invited you to his restaurant
that's just right next door.
Where he gives you piles of steaming kebab
and rice and chickpeas and tea
and beautifully fresh bread.
Henry, do you love this food?
Back to work.
Your child is now sitting on the floor.
Wait, is that asbestos tile?
It probably is.
I should probably get him out of here.
Scan the internet for the right tile,
back to Home Depot.
The boys are in their PJ's because it's bedtime.
But for some reason we have to go to Home Depot.
I don't really remember what happens next.
I just know that after a million trips to Home Depot
and a million passes on this place,
a million tiny details, it's done.
This is what the place looked like
when we bought it in December.
And now, it looks like this.
(heavy bass electronica music)
We wanted a space that didn't feel
too much like a proper studio,
but rather a place you would live in, spend time in.
And while I had some of the vision
for how it would be remodeled
and what kind of countertops it would have.
Iz was the one with the interior design vision.
She put a giant effort
into collecting a set of textures and designs
that felt that once natural to us,
but also interesting and like a statement.
The space has all sorts of textures
that means something to us,
like this Pendleton blanket
that comes from our home state of Oregon
or this pillow
that we picked up in a market in Wahaca, Mexico
when we were there in December.
This beautiful tan couch was sent to us
by Article, an online couch company
that has also sent us these stools and this table.
All of this providing a unified texture
that feels so natural to the space, it feels artful
and yet comfortable.
And all these textures a top,
these Afghan rugs that we got from that warehouse.
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All the gear people who are like,
hey, we came here to learn about your gear storage
and your studio workflow.
I will get to that.
I promise, but just take a minute to just revel
in the beauty of this room.
Okay, so for all the gear people out there
here's something you're gonna like.
See these bars up here on the ceiling.
This is a track
with a hanging arm
that allows us to mount whatever we need to,
microphones, light, a top-down camera.
It can all be mounted right here
with the flexibility to slide back and forth
along this front room.
This front room is kind of our primary shooting space.
We can shoot here the couch
or if we need to get more of a studio look,
we can pull down the seamless's,
which give us a variety of different colors to work with.
Moving over to the kitchen,
this is where you see my pride and joy.
This giant slab of Walnut butcher block.
I worked really hard to get this sucker.
It came from a woodworking shop in Illinois.
And when it got here, it was just a raw piece of wood.
And I spent a lot of hours
beveling it and sanding it and oiling it.
And it's safe to say
that I now have a very special bond with this piece of wood.
The kitchen serves a similar purpose.
It allows us to film here,
but it's a totally functional kitchen with snacks.
And most importantly, a nice coffee setup.
(funky electronica music)
We use this new setup from Fellow, it's the stag system.
And I really liked it so far.
(funky electronica music)
Irving Farms, a roastery and cafe in New York City
sent us this beautiful coffee and we love it.
It tastes different
than any other bags we've ever had in the house.
And I'm just really glad it exists.
Okay, so beside the kitchen we have this audio table,
where we have two mics that are always setup,
they're USB mics, and we can record voiceovers or podcasts.
It's also a place where presumably we could have a meal.
And if we ever have guests
who want to work out of the space,
this would be their place.
Okay, so now into the office area,
but first you probably noticed all these framed photos
that we have around the space.
These were given to us by a company called Frame Bridge.
And I have to say, this has been one of my favorite parts
of this whole experience.
We take a lot of pictures
and usually only see them on computer or phone screens.
So to see them in these giant frames all around the space,
it's been incredibly gratifying.
It's like art with a memory baked into it.
Okay, now onto the office.
Remember now it used to look like this
with new paint and floors and bunch of decor.
It now looks like this.
(funky electronica music)
The anchor to a good workspace
is a good desk and chair setup.
And for this, we are so, so, so grateful
that we found a company called Fully.
Fully is based out of our home, Portland Oregon.
And we just have fallen in love with these desks.
They make these sit stand desks that are totally solid.
We have the bamboo Jarvis desk with this subtle cutout.
And I have to say, I'm in love.
They have loads of accessories
like this laptop and monitor arm,
or this magnetic hook, these file cabinets.
Along with the desks,
they send us these chairs and they look kind of funky.
But the whole point of these chairs is
that they get you moving throughout the day.
You can sit in a bunch of different positions
which I've found to be really good for my very fidgety self.
These desks and chairs have changed my world.
They've made my work day a totally different experience.
So by the way, I'm gonna plan to make a video entirely
about my working setup
and hacks that I use for a more efficient day.
But let's move on to the rest of the space.
Iz intentionally gave me this entire wall to myself
and I'm very, very happy about it.
And to populate it,
of course, I chose my favorite thing in the world maps.
I found this old map on eBay that was
in like an elementary school and it's been lovely.
I find myself just staring at it during the day.
You'll also see more of these Frame Bridge frames
and some miscellaneous photos
from Switzerland and other travels.
I'm gonna keep adding to this gallery and changing it up.
Okay, let's talk about gear, finally gear.
Everyone's here to talk about gear I'm sure.
I love pegboards.
I got these cheap pegboards
at Home Depot and spray painted them black.
And this allowed us to take all of the gear and accessories
and camera stuff out from under our bed
and our children's closet
and in every crevice of our house and put it here.
It took a long time to develop a coherent system
to get everything organized and up on this wall.
But the payoff has been huge.
Over here, we have this closet
with a charging station that is firm and permanent.
It's the first time that I've ever had
any sort of solid, permanent charging station.
And it's been a dream come true.
SD cards, tripods,
they all have a place and they're not competing
with four people living in 700 square feet any longer.
Iz of course has her desk and her wall,
which is full of gorgeous plants and knick-knacks.
Many of them coming from our travels.
(light electronica music)
So that's our studio.
It's been a big investment of time and money for us.
But after years
of recording voiceovers under blankets in my bedroom
and stuffing camera gear into our children's closets,
we're finally investing in a space that spurs creativity
and gives us room to make more stuff
with the least amount of friction possible.
We're excited about this place
and what it means for our future.
And you'll be seeing it a lot more in our videos.
(bells ringing music)
I just wanna clarify one thing really quickly.
In this video, I talk a lot about the products that we use.
Some of this stuff was sent to us for free.
I want to be clear that
all of these items are things that we actually use.
And none of the brands that sent us stuff
paid us or told us what to say.
They had no control editorially
over what we said about their product.
For the stuff that I bought personally,
I will leave an Amazon link for.
I made sure that all of the brands that sent us stuff,
we get no kickbacks if you decide to go buy a Fully desk
or an Article couch or something from Frame Bridge.
I wanted to make sure that there was a separation
from their influence in how we talked about them.
Plus stuff that I bought for myself on Amazon,
that stuff does support Izzy's channel.
She has an affiliates account with Amazon.
It's important that I clarify this
because I want you to know
that everything I talked about here was 100% based
on my own evaluation and critique and usage of these items.
So thanks for watching.
And let me know if you have any questions about the space.
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