NEW STUDIO!

If you have yet seen the IG stories and post, YES, WE BUILT A NEW STUDIO FROM THE GROUND UP.

PODO Craft had a very humble start. Our first production studio was at a shop lot not far from our house. It was small in size, kind of cramped with all the machines and we just make the most out of the space. The studio was always, always messy and disorganized and we were not proud of it. Some clients wanted to visit us, and they had no idea how nervous we are, every single time! All we can say is, the shop lot studio was not presentable at all. Despite not being the most conducive workstation, we survived 4 bittersweet years there. *cry*

Long story short, after spending days and nights of budget and plan talks, we decided to invest in a new studio. I lowkey believe Hafiz prolly getting tired of me, so he just agreed with it. “Let’s make a new studio where our staff can work comfortably,” I said.

So the adventure begins. As an architecture graduate, of course I have to come out with a detailed draw up plan. In my mind, I have already pictured my dream main door, my dream big window for lightings and shadows, my dream tiles in the toilet and my dream entire studio layout. Yes, they are all my dreams, Hafiz just needs to nod his head along and that’s pretty conceding my queen behavior LOL. Nahh just kidding, I asked for Hafiz opinion too….you know for record purpose only. Ideally, he also gave great suggestions that I must take into account lah.

I remember in late April, I sent a picture of the empty site to the staff. Everyone prays in excitement that things will work out swimmingly. It didn’t take a long time to build the studio base and frame and it honestly shocked us two too. I mean slow down uncles…..we have to earn enough money to proceed with the rest of the plan *nervous laugh*

In a month time, we managed to have the whole structure ready though it must been very hard for the uncles to cater to my plan changes, special request and last-minute ideas. Jinjja mianhae, uncles. I think, out of all spaces, we put A LOT of thoughts and considerations for the bathroom and toilet. We had so much ideas and inspirations for our bathroom and toilet. We even measured the wall ourselves using Lasercad Software before buying the tiles so that we only buy as much as we needed. No wasting!

It has always been my dream to have subway tiles in the bathroom. So here they are! Aren’t they effortlessly beautiful? It adds more character and charm to the classic white bathroom. We also chose 60cm x 60cm tiles for the other side of the wall and floor. The wall was finished with white grout. We bought the bathroom accessories from Shopee, if I’m not mistaken, and we pick in the color of black to compliment the white and natural theme. Oh you do not want to hear the story behind that small shower niche to put the toiletries, let alone the stopcock story! Oh dear, I am again sending the uncles my deepest apologies for being so indecisive despite the detailed plan. Meh.

Ok now, let’s talk about texture. We love textures but we cannot afford to comprehend them as much as we desire as we are a little tight on budget. Maybe we’ll keep the idea on our dream house later hehehe. For the exterior wall, we chose SHERA board painted in white. SHERA board has this beautiful wood texture and it is easy to maintain, tough, moisture and fire resistant. Perfect for Malaysia’s weather. We also had a challenging time deciding the best stone veneer for our studio façade. Luckily, our choice turns out so nice and blend well with the theme.

We have installed all doors and windows recently. That’s a lot of work too, with the doors especially, because we opted to whitewash the doors ourselves. With that being said, we have done building the new studio yeay! However, we have yet started with the interior part of the studio. There’s still so much plan to work on, the seating layout, the patio tiles, pergola, rattan furniture that we want to place under the wooden deck and of course, again, as a landscape architecture graduate, I would love to use my almost rusted knowledge to design a landscape around the studio. Until then, we will work hard and set aside more budget to bring the ideas into action.

All and all, I personally consider time as our biggest challenge. Since our team is occupied with orders, we can’t find the perfect time yet to start moving the whole production to the new studio. Hoping we can soon. I wasn’t able to share a lot of progress pics at the time because building was so time consuming. All consuming, really! I was struggling to keep both the construction and production going on. So while you’ve seen a lot of the “after” of the studio, I thought it would be fun to share some of the “before” and “during” pictures today, if I might not have shared.  It really is such a fascinating process to see a dream studio come to life one step at a time.

I really can’t believe we have come this far. In so many ways it feels like we just started. But in other ways I’m started to feel like this studio will be our new home. While there has been so much to take recently, we want to keep telling you that we are forever grateful for your kind support. Things are changing rapidly in our personal and business life, and it’s cool that we get to grow and share exciting times with you all. Till next time, xoxo.