Spatial Pivot Plan
for individuals and families
Create space in your home, work, and life with support and ease
This is my “work” space in my 325sqft NYC apartment…white boards for idea development, vintage ice cooler for standing desk options, books/printer close at hand, and plants to give me connection to nature.
We’ve all been there. Life is spinning along just fine when * WHACK * we get served a curve ball out of nowhere. For most of us recently, this was the Work From Home mandate that appeared seemingly overnight. For others there may have been last minute decisions to home school, long term decisions to care for an aging parent, or strategic decisions to relocate home base, downsize living space, or welcome a new baby/partner.
What all of these examples have in common is that they shift how you interact with your personal - and possibly your professional - spaces. All of a sudden you are required to pivot your day-to-day strategy. Some may require finding more space; some, how to do more with less; even others, forcing us to let go entirely and start over. But there’s a secret about all space that I think you should know before we go any further…
The spaces we inhabit for life, work, and play are not just walls, floors, and ceiling - they are our habits and healing journeys; passion projects and creative voices; behaviors and relationships. It is how we exist, day-to-day.
Not only do our spaces provide the physical framework for what we do, they can support - or hinder - the intangible structure of how we do it. That’s why, when life gets unpredictable, our spaces can become beloved places of refuge or avoided places of overwhelm, stress, and chaos.
But who wants places of overwhelm, stress, and chaos?! No one.
The good news? The overwhelm, stress, and chaos will end.
The better news? There is a way for your space to support you. You already know what works for you - you just need a little help as you transition.
“Before our session I was overwhelmed with ideas and had no focus on where and how to set up my workspace for the school year. By communicating different ways to think about and connect to the spaces in my home, Valerie helped me see and prioritize what I need to have in place to support myself throughout my workday. As I left the session, I was feeling excited and relieved to have a plan that worked specifically for me and was easily achievable.”
How it works
When working with public space clients, focus is not solely on the physical aspects like walls, lights, furniture, power, etc. We also take into account how their communities and clients interact with the space, how the operations and systems support the activities. The observations and understanding of communal behavior is just as important, if not more so, than the space itself. Your home and daily actions are no different whether you working from home and living intimately with a family of 5, consolidating to accommodate a partner/baby/new roommate, or launching a business from a downsized home.
In your Spatial Pivot session, we review not just the spatial container but also your wellness practices, daily activities, and habits. We take into account what you can control (your actions, furniture placement, etc) and cannot control (extents of the space, other people, etc) in order to understand and work with the complexities that this life transition throws you. Once you understand this framework, you apply it again and again!
Your Spatial Pivot Guide
Hi! My name is Valerie Farber and I developed the Spatial Pivot Plan to help those in transition feel grounded, calm, and even inspired while re-evaluating and re-creating their spaces during uncertain times. Bringing over 20 years of architectural design and spaceplanning experience as well as my own studied and tested experiments with living and working out of many small homes/apartments, I am well versed in the language of creating space regardless of constraints. With a strong self-development and community-care practice over the last decade, I utilize unconventional tools to gently investigate the more emotional side of adjusting space. With both skillsets at the ready, I will walk you through a framework for creating your space, your habits/rituals, and your overarching purpose to fully support you in your day-to-day for the next year or beyond.
“No one ever tells you how difficult it is to baby proof a New York City apartment. With one FaceTime call, Valerie made suggestions that improved our day-to-day living with a baby and two work from home parents. Once implemented, our child had her spaces, we had our spaces (they were less frequently confused) and she was safer in our home. We were able to say the word “no” much less! ”
Spatial Pivot Plan
This is a 4-week, Do-It-Together, virtual service to re-envision your space during an unexpected - or planned for - life transition.
Week 1: Prepare
Prior to our engagement you will need to upload a few things to your personal and private Dropbox folder (items marked with * are required for service to begin):
*answers to the pre-work questionnaire
*a photo of each wall of the space we will be working with
a video walk-through with commentary (if this is comfortable for you to do)
any floor plans if you have them
Please Note: you will be showing your space via video so please have a way to be mobile. \
A workbook will be sent to you prior to the call which will have pre-work (or homework!) to be completed before our 90-minute session. The exercises will help you understand your spatial container as well as your dreams, goals, and needs for the project.
Week 2: Develop
The bulk of our work together happens during the 90-minute virtual video session. Here, we will discuss the intangible aspects of your day and synthesize their affect on the space and your experiences. We will review easy and DIY ways to manipulate, zone, and “find” space you already have, focusing in on your specific pain points and goals. We will take into account all people using the space (if applicable) in order to create a holistic and sustainable plan moving forward.
We will then use the workbook to analyze the spatial container and your daily life. We will input the “map” of your spatial goals and the priority steps you will take to achieve them. This is your Spatial Pivot Plan!
Week 3: Integrate
This is where you apply what we’ve developed in your space. You’ll want to live with the changes for a few days and document your observations. We will have opportunity to refine and adjust your space if needed in Week 4.
Week 4: Review
Finally, there will be a 30-minute follow-up call to review how the strategies you implemented worked (or didn’t). We will refine the plan if needed to give you a space that supports and delights you.
“Four years ago we downsized (1,200sf), but kept some of the furniture from our larger home (2,000sf). Our home office/activity room never functioned as we had hoped it would because of clutter and disorganization. After meeting with Valerie and airing our frustrations and goals, she identified our problems and developed options which we used to transform the space. Her guidance solved our challenge, and we are very pleased with the result.”
FAQs
Who is it for?
This service is for those who moving through a life transition such as:
starting or refining a work from home office set up
creating or adjusting space for a new baby/toddler
merging lived space with a partner or roommate
welcoming an aging parent/child/friend into the home
creating a home school set up
dusting off previously unused space
moving or downsizing into a new home
any other transitional period in your life that forces you to re-evaluate the space you interact with on a day-to-day basis
This is also most fun for those with a strong DIY and sustainability-minded spirit.
What is the investment?
The investment for the Spatial Pivot Plan is $1,100.00.
what is the timeframe?
This is a 4-week, Do-It-Together, virtual service.
Week 1: Prep materials submission and review.
Week 2: 90-minute working call with exercises from the workbook and real-time plan development.
Week 3: Integration week w/ email support as needed.
Week 4: 30-minute wrap-up call with next steps review.
What do I get?
At the end of our engagement, you will have a Spatial Pivot Plan with:
a clear understanding of the systems you need to work effectively,
the mindset tools for shaping space through habits, behaviors, and rituals,
a new layout of your space that considers and supports your day-to-day reality
a renewed sense of control over your environment,
a personalized PDF workbook with mindset and system exercises, the homework exercises, and the results of our session together.
bonus resources include…
complimentary access to Insight Timer curated meditation playlist for Spatial Pivot clients to help you navigate change and stress (no account required).
a DIY tips and tricks guide for out-of-the-box inspiration and reinforcement that the best trend is always the one that makes sense and works for you!
The story of a Brooklyn studio, a family of 3, and a global pandemic
Zoning space for multiple functions:
Here is what a former client had to say about her Spatial Pivot Plan session.
Don’t miss the programming map below we created for her Brooklyn studio apartment. Notice that each area is defined for clear function, even without formal walls!
“Like most people in 2020, my family of three had a sudden transition of accommodating multiple, competing activities in our one-room, Brooklyn studio apartment. It was overwhelming and I wanted help making sense of everything. Working with Spatial Medium provided an easy process of guided explorations and strategic exercises that not only built trust but sparked a perspective shift about creating space I didn’t know I was missing! Once implemented, I was able to see my physical (and digital!) spaces as systems I could design, test, and refine to support my busy family. The Spatial Medium session was exactly the steady partner I needed during that hectic and all-encompassing transition”
