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Photo Essay: A Day in the Life at Walnut Studiolo

Come behind the digital curtain with us and enjoy this photo essay. We snapped pictures of ourselves at intervals during a typical day working and living from home as a small family business, on the eve of our 10th year in business.

6:52 am

Coffee first. Our method: French press with medium-roast beans. Breakfast was a fried egg, a slice of toast, and half a nectarine.

8:35 am

Giving a quick tour of the workshop and an informational interview with the team at Blendily, a fellow small business owner from Portland.

8:52 am

Hand-dyeing straps with honey color, which will later be cut and assembled into Lovejoy drawer pulls.

11:33 am

Finishing up the morning’s shipping (17 packages today). Geoff is hammering so Val is wearing auditory protection.

12:13 pm

Huckin’ plastic. Taking in a couple holes of disc golf between the house and the workshop before lunch.

12:40 pm

Lunch is our big meal of the day. We cook together and then sit down and play a game. Today: cribbage and taco pizza.

1:37 pm

Burnishing the leather of the barrel bag in the workshop (melting wax on the edges).

2:02 pm

Val spends the afternoon on the computer in the house, checking email, updating the website, bookkeeping.

2:05 pm

“Weeding is a lifestyle,” our farmer says. Taking a few moments to weed the laurel hedge before we cover it up.

4:25 pm

Punching holes in barrel bags to prep for stitching tonight (still in my yard work clothes).

4:34 pm

Winterizing the laurel hedge in front of the Walnut road sign with deer netting.

5:36 pm

Running the CNC router to cut perfect circles out of vertical grain Western Red Cedar for barrel bags and whiskey cases.

6:44 pm

Vegetarian dinner in front of the TV: cacio e pepe, green salad, red wine.

8:09 pm

Stitching up barrel bags while watching TV. Tonight we’re watching the architecture show Grand Designs on Netflix.

9:45 pm

Off to bed, thinking about the rain predicted for tomorrow morning.


Walnut Studiolo crafts original modern designs by hand in our Oregon workshop using only natural materials. We are a family-run company located on the North Oregon Coast. Learn more about us on our website.

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