Calling all gorgeous homeowners of gorgeous Liverpool homes. To kick off this post, I want to let everyone know Styled Home Studios are currently looking to expand their portfolio of Liverpool locations. If you would love to open your home up to brands and creative professionals, apply to become a Host here. And you know what I will say next...professional photographs are essential to help your home stand out, so if you would like to book me to shoot your home - let's chat!
Finding the perfect location house for photoshoots can be a minefield for brands, independent business owners, photographers, and content creators alike. You may come across the perfect place, which turns out to be 300 miles away, or well beyond the limits of your budget, making it very quickly unattainable. Styled Home Studios is here to shake things up in the boutique shoot location space and relegate the hours of research and endless scrolling as a thing of the past. The mission is this:
"To open up the shoot location market, making scroll stopping locations accessible to everyone by connecting the owners of incredible spaces with brands and creatives who want to create content."
In the short time since launching the business in early 2021, Styled Home Studios now boasts an impressive portfolio of stunning location homes across the UK, offering an eclectic collection of interior styles to suit all brand needs. They bring a new level of flexibility to the location market, with the opportunity to book directly with the Hosts, an intuitive dashboard to manage your bookings, and hourly rates so creatives only pay for the time they require. All of this is at a saving of around 20% when compared with a traditional location agency.
The powerhouses behind this rapidly scaling business are best friends Helen and Tamaryn. I chatted with them about their backgrounds, and how they came to be co-founders of a business together. Helen has her own business as a brand photographer, working with entrepreneurs and small businesses. Married to a military man, she is a self-described nomad having moved around every few years. She is currently loving living in Kingston upon Thames.
An interior designer by trade, Tamaryn says the evolution to co-founding Styled Home Studios was a natural step after having children. Born in South Africa, Tamaryn moved to England as a child. She currently resides in London, settling here after her time at university. Helen and Tamaryn met in sixth form and Helen exclaims "If you’d told us at 16 that we’d be running a business together almost 24 years later we would never have believed you!". They've been in each other's lives through the highs and lows, they've lived together, they were bridesmaids at each other’s weddings and godparents to each other’s kids. When it came to starting the business, Tamaryn says "taking the next step and becoming ‘work wives’ was as natural and easy for us as it ever could be."
The inspiration behind Styled Home Studios came directly from Helen's struggle as a photographer to find flexible locations for her personal branding photography. One day, amidst this struggle to find the perfect location, Helen asked Tamaryn if she could hire her beautiful home for the shoot: "It was such a positive experience for everyone and solved mine and my client’s problem so perfectly". This positive experience, along with Tamaryn's experience building and launching e-commerce platforms, meant it was a match made in heaven and Styled Home Studios was born.
They describe their business in three words:
Curated, transparent and beautiful
Styled Home Studios is guided by values of openness, positivity, and respect, much like the values underpinning Helen and Tamaryn's friendship. Standing out from other location agencies, Styled Home Studios is a curated platform of beautifully styled locations, where clients are connected directly with Hosts and run on hourly rates with no hidden fees. The flexibility afforded by hourly rates means it's "so much easier to fit a scroll-stopping location into your shoot budget" as Helen suggests, and get the most out of your investment.
Helen outlines the simple booking process:
"Every location has their own page with all of their info and the option to message the Host and Book your shoot. When you’ve found the ideal location we suggest sending the Host a direct message first to check if the date you’d like to shoot is available. When you’re ready to secure your shoot just fill in the booking form and pay at the checkout. Your booking is then sent to the Host to review and approve. When it’s approved your card is charged and you are sent confirmation and the full address for shoot day. All that’s left is to arrive at your location at the agreed start time!"
From the Hosts' perspective, there are lower commissions so they can make more from every
shoot and no hierarchy so each location has as much chance to be discovered as the next. Hosts are in complete control of their bookings, and the headache is taken out of the payments and contracts. They're more than just a website, they are the people behind the business and are always happy to help! They offer a varied portfolio and welcome homes of all styles, genres, and aesthetics. The only requirements to become a Host is to have the desire to open your home to creative professional and for your home to be styled intentionally. Size doesn't matter as much as well-presented rooms and attention to the small, but significant, details.
Helen and Tamaryn have built up a wonderful community of creatives surrounding Styled Home Studios. They work with a wide variety of creatives, from service and product-based businesses to production companies and photographers. A few recent clients include exciting businesses like Bambino Mio and Randies. The key foundation of this community: is creativity and integrity. Helen and Tamaryn wanted to say a special thanks to Amanda Karen Photography and Bry Penny who have been shooting with Styled Home Studios from day one.
The future of Styled Home Studios is certainly a bright one. Helen and Tamaryn's aspiration is for Styled Home Studios to become the go-to location platform for the UK's most exciting brands and creatives. Be sure to check out their beautiful website and follow their journey on socials to see how they fly!
Check out below one of Styled Home Studios' stunning location houses which I went out to shoot in the Spring. Coming soon to the platform!
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