I run my business form home, and we currently rent, but are being chucked out in a few months when the house is sold. We want to buy a house so we dont keep getting chucked out and can actually DO things to the house like put my photos up on the wall etc.... The house we rent is REALLY HUGE, brand new and very nice and in a nice area, and so i have a definete area where its the Client Space, and its all laid out ready to go. It makes a good first impression.

anyway, with the way the market is these days, the houses we can afford are really crappy and small, and in semi dogdy areas. Im afraid that

1...prosective clients will be turned off by this,
2...I wont have a separate 'Client' room and will have to work out of our longe room and
3...work and home will be on top of each other even more than they are now.

We arnt in a finacial situation right now where I can have a separate studio from the house as rents there are astronomical too.

To those people who work under similar conditions...how do you make it work? Can you show me photos at all??

I have a house, in a dodgy area too. I do some maternity and child photography in my house. I've found clients don't really notice what it looks like, or if they do, no-one has ever said anything bad. My house is kind of cool looking, but there's also some not so nice stuff (like really nasty lino on the kitchen floor), but its comfortable, warm and welcoming. I think people like the feeling of being treated more like a friend (who gets good pictures), than a customer, especially doing more PJ style like I do.

if your at all familiar with housing in england, you know everything is small - yet i hve been able to manage an area for clients off of my livingroom. i keep it as separate as possible, but the spill over is inevitable and no one complains. in fact, i really do think people feel more at home and relaxed in a home like setting.

i have huge enlargements on the walls and the wall at my front door is covered in prints.

i am about to make a partition though to make it even more private.

i think it can work as long as you try to separate it out as much as possible.

My studio is in my home. I have a 14x28 room for my office/studio. I conduct meetings, proofing, and ordering in my dining room. People do like the idea of feeling like a friend instead of a client. The hardest part for me is keeping everything clean and organized with a 5yr old running around and the tumbleweeds of hair coming out of my black lab.

I've actually had a few clients stay for dinner if I was grilling when they came by.

Eventually I want to have a storefront studio, but for now my home is comfortable and inviting.

Separation and Professionalism! Those are the keys! The reality is that there is only so much that any of us can afford as far as office space is concerned, so make the most of what you've got now and dream big for the future!

Here are a couple of images from our home studio. The first picture is what the client sees as soon as they walk in our home. We made sure that they didn't have to walk through other rooms to get to our office!




The second image is of the adjoining room where we've turned a dining room into a workspace/gallery.

Hi Clare,

Up until now I have been visiting my clients in their homes to show the photos. But as we speak, I am putting in a very small room for my office and viewing area. When I say small I mean small, it is only 4.3 m x 2.8 m. Ok, that is small, but it is going to be very stylish! This area was part of a lounge/dining room in my home and as my home is open plan it is the only area that I could 'steal' from the family (I have 3 kids and a husband) without too many major hassles.

On the 4.3m wall I have a slim workstation/desk being custom made, it has shelves and lots of storage. On one of the 2.8m walls I have a nice new plasma going in, on the other 4.3m wall I have the door and a gallery wall display, the last 2.8 m wall which is made of glass bricks has a slim line couch. It's not ideal and I'd love a large viewing area but it is better than having to drive for an hour to get to a clients house and it means that clients can drop by my house to pick up orders without them seeing that I was working off a dining room table because I didn't have anywhere else to work from. I will post photos once it is complete. If you are really worried about the home you are renting maybe you can offer to view in the clients house, it's a last resort and it's more time consuming but it might work for you. It works for me, but I need a back-up for those clients who really want to come to me, and I'm not going to do deliveries anymore with the cost of petrol going up every week!

I find it a little stressful working out of our home--I am a neat person, but there is always that pressure to have everything perfect since we have a small studio upstairs and our consultation room/pick-up/projection area downstairs. Plus, we have a cat so there is that constant clean-up of kitty fur. Not to mention the proper mowing of the lawn, landscaping, clean windows, etc. I do believe that it needs to be really, really clean and neat at all times. It's nice to be that organized, though, I guess, but I do feel pressure to constantly clean and maintain.

When clients come through the front door, they see a large 30x40 on an easel and turn right into the consultation room. There is a big comfy sofa, a big chair, plus tons of images and our work area with our two desktops (we work side by side).

If they want some in-studio work, they go up the stairs to the small studio--and I mean small! They dress in the master bedroom and use the master bath if needed.

We will have this house paid off by the end of the year (we moved in 5 years ago), and I cannot wait to get a house with a walkout studio basement and some land for a portrait park.

Our couples love to sit and hang out, though--it is warm and inviting and I always have soft light and candles--like a citrus or a light vanilla scent.

Nathan is right. Use a wide angle lens.

We work from home too and although I'd much rather have a studio to meet up with clients it's just not viable for us. I don't know whether it's a good thing or bad thing but our clients all tend to become friends and I don't know whether it actually has to do with meeting at home making them feel more comfortable and relaxed. At the same time, it's hard to keep that professional relationship strong & serious when people are so relaxed and friendly with you.

My biggest issue is that our house is open-plan so cooking smelly food before a client is about to walk in is a definite no-no!

I know it can be a pain- but I like making house calls.