The space to be you
Northern California — As many moms know, taking care of children is a full-time job.
That’s what Jewelz learned more than a decade ago when she had her first son, who is now 11.
That job took over her life more and more as she grew her brood with two more sons, ages 10 and 8, and a daughter, age 5.
For nearly just as long as the time that she’s been a mom, the California artist knew she wanted her own art studio.
“With four kids, I had to take a break from doing art,” says Jewelz, who primarily enjoys watercolor painting, pen and ink drawing, stippling and is now interested in linol printing. “Now that my youngest is 5, I was able to get back to it.”
However, there hasn’t been much space in her family’s home for her work.
“I leave my art projects out, but we have a lot of playdates, so we always have some little friend helping out with my projects. Which, you know, is not the direction I want to go,” she says. “I needed my own space.”
Jewelz had been browsing Modern-Shed’s website, blog and social media accounts for awhile, along with sites from some of our competitors, but she loved the personalization of Modern-Shed and especially enjoyed seeing how so many other customers use their sheds.
“They’re so personal to everyone,” she says. “For being a prefab, you can customize them in such a way that it represents who you are. I love to see what people choose: the colors, the layout and what they choose it for.”
Jewelz’ 10’ by 12’ shed was installed last year near their swimming pool, so that if they sold their house, the Modern-Shed could easily convert to a pool house for the next buyer — though Jewelz isn’t so keen to give up her shed even in that scenario.
“I told my husband that if we sold the place, I’d want to take the shed with me,” she laughs. “They are really phenomenal. They are so well-insulated, and they’re gorgeous, honestly. I’m really impressed. I would do it again.”
Her favorite part about her art studio is the fact that inside, she’s able to decorate it suiting her own personal mid-century modern taste.
“We had a lot of hand-me-downs from my parents and everything in my art studio is stuff I picked up second-hand, which is totally my style, as opposed to the house which is something for my family, with my husband’s style and my style put together,” Jewelz says.
For example, Jewelz keeps her art supplies in a China cabinet and she uses architect drawers and Hamilton drafting tables from the 1920s, which she bought for 10 cents, as her desks.
“I love design and architecture,” she says. “Honestly, my shed it’s not neat, it’s not stylish. But it’s efficient. It’s where I can leave my projects while I’m working on them. It’s my space. My youngest is a girl, and she’s always trying to find a way to get in there.”
Jewelz also loves being able to pop in and out of the shed while her kids are playing in the pool during these hot summer days.
“Two of our kids have ADHD, so we spend a lot of time outdoors in the pool,” she says. “It’s the best placement for the shed. When the kids get older I can do art from the shed while they’re in the pool, but still be able to keep an eye out for them.”
Jewelz had a great experience with her Modern-Shed dealer, Mike Probach, though she would recommend to others to have a conversation with the general contractor and installer ahead of delivery time to discuss some of the details.
“There’s practical stuff that made me wish we’d spoken to the general contractor ourselves before delivery, which would have helped facilitate the install,” she says. “We could have decided, ahead of time, what other items we needed to buy, for example.”
Ultimately, Jewelz is beyond happy she finally has the space that she’s been craving.
“Being the sole caretaker of the kids is exhausting,” she says. “I love it, but at the same time, you need your own space to be you, separate from being a wife and being a mom.”
