Making Room for Magic

Every creative entrepreneur knows the feeling: your passion project starts as a hobby, and soon enough, it takes over your entire life—and your living space.

Looking back at our journey, it’s incredible to see how a business that once fit on a tiny patch of counter space between a kettle and a microwave grew into the brick-and-mortar maker space we call home today. Here is the story of how Wren found its feet and its own front door.

From Working at Home, to Living at Work

In the very beginning, Wren started in the kitchen of my flat. Then, it crept into the bedroom. Before I knew it, it had claimed the lounge. None of these spaces were very big to start with, but whatever floor space we had was quickly filled with fabric and ideas.

Some days, it felt less like I was working from home and more like I was living at my workshop. I was waking up to work and going to sleep at work—checking Etsy every free moment for those first few precious sales! Wren was entirely in my space. I slept with it, dreamt it, woke up to it, and fell asleep amongst it.

While it wasn't the healthiest work-life balance, it did allow me the freedom to walk my dogs on the beach—a beautiful contrast to my previous corporate job where I clocked in at 7:30 AM and left at 5:00 PM. I was more than happy to put the effort in because I fully believed that Wren was going to be something great.

When I moved into a duplex townhouse with my at-the-time boyfriend (now husband), Jeremy, the expansion continued. Wren claimed the biggest room in the house. Then, it took over the garage.

A major turning point came when I started needing help in the business beyond what Jeremy could do after hours. Our setup back then was beautifully resourceful, but incredibly tight:

• The Cutting Table: A repurposed table tennis table.

• The Sewing Room: Tucked away in an upstairs bedroom.

• The Meeting Room: Our actual dining room table, where we hosted client meetings.
  

While it worked for a time, it was not ideal for a relationship! The true tipping point came when Wren hired its first employee. It became much harder to maintain a boundary when someone else had to move through our deeply personal living spaces just to access the work areas.

It had always been a dream and a goal of mine to have a studio away from home to work from. I’d wandered into many studios and envied them—messy or not, it’s a space to be creative! Yet, the fear to commit to a rental agreement is real. I think every small business both looks forward to the day they outgrow home and dreads this exact growing pain. 

A Hidden Gem on Rhodesia Road

I felt quite lucky to have met Keri Muller from Simple Intrigue, who was also looking for a studio to share in the same area of Cape Town. For over a year, we visited premises and none of them felt right. I was close to giving up and had resigned myself to the fate that for 2014, I was probably going to have to give up a little bit more space at home for Wren to grow.

Early in December, I said as much to Keri—that I would just wait until one of the spaces in this exact location became available because I thought they were all currently rented and the neighborhood looked nice.

She replied, “Oh, this morning one listed on Gumtree to rent, I think!”

The next day we went to see the place. Although it was in a really bad condition—with ivy growing right through the windows and the ceiling—we both agreed that it was a space we could make work, and wanted to make work.

Just 30 days after deciding I was alright with the idea of keeping Wren at home, we were moving in! Looking back at my journal from those first few weeks, the feeling was pure excitement:

"We still have not moved in properly – there are boxes everywhere and it is a bit deurmekaar as us South Africans would say (meaning happy chaos) – but I love it! To come home to a fresh space is wonderful and even if it is only a short-term joy, I am enjoying it for now."

 

We cohabited happily for about two years until 2017, when Keri decided she wanted to downsize. I reached out to some neighbors who were graphic designers to see if they wanted to co-share the space with me. They jumped at the chance, but over the next year, Wren just kept growing. Bit by bit, I took over more than my half of the building until we occupied the entire space and were practically falling over boxes all over again.

Finding Our Forever Home

As fate would have it, a space opened up on the Main Road, just about 50 meters away from our hidden studio.

The building was old, boasting worn-down wooden floors and a sense of soul that can only come from old buildings. This resonated deeply with me; I always look for places to feel at home in, not just places to exist in. Because it had originally been a house, it was divided into five distinct rooms. The landlord, a local art teacher, loved the vision of what I wanted to turn the space into, and we happily agreed to the sale.

We moved in during 2019 and went to work making it our own in ways that perfectly suited the needs of a growing business:

• We removed the old cupboards that didn't fit our daily flow.

• We closed up the old fireplaces (because you definitely cannot have open flames in a paper studio!).

• We filled every corner with Wren’s signature creativity.

Today, this space allows us to be everything we’ve always wanted to be. With its high ceilings, we have ample storage for our materials and packaging. The front of the building functions as a retail shop, proudly open to the public six days a week, while the back houses a sun-drenched maker space.

It is a wonderful place that we are so proud to call the home of Wren Design. It is a dream achieved, and a space of continuous creativity and magic.

Come pop in if you are in the area. It might not always be perfectly neat, and you might have to step over a box or two if we are mid-production, but our doors are open. Come say hi!