How Our Family is Managing Coworking & Childcare in Under 1,000 Square Feet
/by Leah Wiiest, Principal
In mid-March Johnston Architects, like countless employers in and around Seattle, abruptly transitioned to a full-time work from home (WFH) model to promote social distancing in hopes of containing the COVID-19 illness that first made headlines in January.
All the comforts of home with the conveniences of the office. Louie misses going into the JA studio and seeing his friends!
While many professionals work remotely at least part-time, this sudden shift lead to dramatic change in routine for millions of people within a matter of hours. Many of us found ourselves working, learning, and living alongside our partners and children 24/7. My husband, toddler, and I were abruptly unmoored from our daily routines and the connections that keep us on an even keel.
A week later we were awoken by our two-year old in the throes of a nightmare, and her cry told me we would not be going back to sleep anytime soon. When she was finally calm enough to use her words, she revealed the nightmare: “My toes, my toes! They’re on the boat!” She let out a lamenting wail and pointed toward some far off horizon I couldn’t see.
I felt for her – and I could relate. Physically separated from our friends, colleagues, and communities, it’s nearly impossible not to feel adrift right now. We have managed to settle into this new “normal,” and through it, we’re gaining perspective on how the spaces in our home can better serve our evolving needs. Here is one big change my family made to help anchor ourselves during this storm.
Frosted glass in the garage door diffuses daylight into the space, brightening it up even on cloudy days. Our poodle Louie approves.
Good Shipmates
Our two-bedroom, one-bathroom home can feel cozy even when you’re not fighting cabin fever in the midst of a stay-at-home directive. At just 800 square feet, two adults, one toddler, and a standard poodle puts us at maximum capacity.
Our de facto home office – the kitchen, of course – works well for occasional weekend projects or evening deadlines. But for a full day of coworking from home while parenting, our home’s wheelhouse isn’t an ideal place to do business. At 160 square feet, it only took a couple of days working alongside one another before my husband and I were both vying for elbow room and a quiet corner for conference calls and Zoom meetings. Instead of feeling like home, our 1950s Seattle cottage was beginning to feel like the confined quarters of a vessel stuck at sea.
We had started a garage-to-office conversion but hadn’t made much progress. This change in course meant we needed to make this home improvement project a priority.
Finding Harbor
We knew converting our 260 square foot garage from a storage space into a workspace would give us some much-needed space to spread out and work more efficiently, but there were headwinds. Like many people now living the reality of full-time WFH, we spent a couple of days clearing out previously cluttered space and scrambling to set up viable, longer-term workstations. After sorting, filing, and shredding, we had a collection of donations and recyclables and had gained 30% more living space!
This garage transformation has given our entire family a flex-space that we love spending time in. And there’s even room for a tea party.
Creating an efficient workstation doesn’t have to be complicated: a work surface installed at the right height, task lighting, and a few framed photos of family and friends are usually enough to get you started. If you can add some drawers or a shelf, bonus! Voila, home office!
We had envisioned this garage-turned-office to be mostly an adult workspace, but the truth is that our toddler needs more room to run and explore too, so instead of creating a workspace we created a flex-space. We covered the concrete floor with a rug, added some seating and a large low table (perfect height to set your coffee if you’re an adult, or to sit and color if you’re not), and hung an old Beatles poster on the wall. When warmer weather arrives we can open the garage door and let this living space spill outdoors too.
Equally suited for a toddler’s playtime or for marking up drawing sets, my family has found our safe harbor in our new family flex-space. Bonus perk: it makes a pretty good setting for my weekly Zoom happy hours with the rest of the JA crew.
the family who stays together has to work and play together.
The low, live-edge coffee table is the perfect height for puzzles, coloring, or building blocks.
on warm days we can open the glass garage door and let in the fresh air!