Wow - I really can't believe it has been one year since our grand opening last October! Some of you have been with us from the very beginning, purchasing van Gogh paint from our back door before we were even open (thank you!). That was back during those renovating days where I repeatedly asked myself 'if we build it, will they come?'

I love sharing before and after furniture restyle pictures with you, but today I want to share some before and after pictures of studio 18. Here is a somewhat recent picture of the front of my studio:

And here's a picture of what the studio looked like from the outside when I first took over the space . . .

Now let's take a look at some images of the interior of the space before Mango Reclaimed moved in. Hardly inspiring! Looking back I can hardly believe this is the same space! The first two pictures are of the 'showroom', the second picture is where I now teach workshops, and the last picture shows our empty furniture warehouse . . . yuck!

But I had a vision and lot's of help!

When customer come into the studio now, they often comment on how great our space is, and I have to agree with them, but we worked hard to get it there! Especially my hard working dad! Seriously, I have all these visions and ideas - and he just makes them happen! I really do LOVE my studio, which is divided into 3 distinct areas; 'studio A' is our showroom where we showcase all of our painted furniture, housewares and DIY products.

'Studio B' is where we do all of our production. Furniture gets painted here, workshops are taught here, this is where all the fun and magic happens :

Admittedly, studio B is where I spend the majority of my time and it really is usually quite a mess/hub of activity and production.

And then of course there is 'studio C', where we house all of our furniture and do all the 'dirty work', like prepping furniture, minor repairs, etc. It's where we have all of these treasures (and more) stored:

Looking back we have had quite a busy and productive year! First we did some major renovations, then we had a grand opening, taught some workshops, custom restyled a bunch of furniture, sold lot's of van Gogh paint, taught some more workshops, expanded by bringing in Miss Mustard Seed's Milk paint, worked at a bunch of trade shows with The Inspiration Nest, custom restyled a ton of furniture, brought in some gorgeous hardware, made it onto a magazine cover, hired a summer intern, made a YouTube video, opened a 'pop-up shop', taught some more workshops, had an appearance on Rogers TV, catalogued our inventory and launched it online, expanded by bringing in the Fusion paint line, custom restyled more furniture, spent some time with Miss Mustard Seed, made it into the Look Book, taught some more workshops and now we're preparing for our 1 year anniversary!