"Room to Bloom" with Jane Davenport!

Welcome to my blog series "Room to Bloom"! Some amazing women from around the world will be sharing their personal creative spaces with us. No matter if our space is desk in a corner of our kitchen or a spacious loft studio, we all need room to bloom, don't you think? I know you'll find these sanctuaries as inspiring as I do.

Today's guest is Jane Davenport from sunny Austrailia - her space is heaven! She's even shared a studio tour via video! Enjoy!


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My 'Headquarters' is a large warehouse space that has been divvied up into living areas, storage for my store and Gallery, my husbands woodcrafting workshop and offices. The rest of the space seems to be mine!



I have seven open 'studios' within the large atrium space, split over two levels. The Photography studio, paint studio, computer and printing lab and sewing room are all upstairs. The library and small scale projects/art Journalling lab are downstairs.

The whole area is flooded in natural light from translucent sky panels except for the computer zone. We bought the property 4 years ago, it had a mezzanine level already, painted in orange and purple which hurt my eyes! Gradually, bit by bit we have made changes and improvements. Big moments were new floor coverings and the sky panels!



The warehouse in its current state is a dream come true and represents the fruit of a BIG leap of faith my husband and I made 10 years ago. I love being there, it's the most 'at home' I've ever felt. I love that I can have projects on the go in each studio, and because the spaces are open, things are never out of sight. If I run out of steam, or need a break from one project, there is always some other creative endeavour beckoning me.

I've always had to fit my creative spaces into wherever we've lived, but now the living areas are fitted around the art spaces...it's an amazing turn-around that wouldn't suit everyone, but I swan about in my big warehouse, in a state of bliss, free to create wherever, and whenever I want/ need. It's awesome and I am fully aware of how lucky I am and how much work went into realizing this dream...!

You can see a quick video of some of my studio here:




The only additions now would be a rooftop garden and a sink in the painting area...but these may be wishful thinking! ( But then again, my husband is very bloody clever with making my impossible dreams come true...so, who knows? Stay tuned!)



Jane Davenport is a professional Artist and the Author of 5 books with a Concept Store and Gallery in Byron Bay, Australia called the Institute of Cute. Her artwork is also exhibited and licensed internationally. Jane blogs, teaches creativity classes online and delivers an inspirational newsletter called the 'Ladybird Letter' each month. She loves to help other artistic souls to make their own creative leaps and bounds!

Visit Jane here and here!