I wanted to share a new project I've got going on, it's called...
"OPERATION: WORKSPACE"
If you're like me, when setting up a desk in the beginning of your career, school, or hobby as an artist. It's hard to go out and know exactly what you'll need. We all start with a desk or table or some sort of solid surface, maybe a couple bins or boxes to throw paint brushes in or one of those rolling plastic carts. You never realize how many different art supplies you're going to accumulate throughout the years and your space has to grow and expand to hold everything.
What started for me as a nice wide artist table and a single drawer cart soon expanded over the years to include 3 more plastic drawer carts, an old short bookshelf that stacked under my table - filled to overflowing, an under the bed pull out bin, a tall bookcase packed with art/inspiration book,s and a full drawer of my own dresser. *sigh*
There's got to be a better solution.
There is!
First I want to say that I most definitely need to go through and purge old supplies before reorganizing. Oil tubes only last so long outside of school...
The first thing I needed to figure out was storage space and surface space. I needed not only to have plenty of places to store supplies but I needed them accessible. Digging through 3 drawers before finding a certain paper isn't efficient. I also needed to make sure that my actual table was as open as possible. One major change in this set up is the addition of a desktop computer. Thank you Apple for making an all-in-one; it needs to be able to slide all the way back when I get out any kind of paint or messy mediums.
On another note, I also need it to function as an office space. I never realized how much "office supplies" fall side by side with the art pencils and my monthly bills have no where to land. (in turn they clutter up the desk.... and the problem starts all over again.)
It's a tall order to find something that specific and if you start hunting around the internet for such a station, you're gonna end up spending a TON of money.
Then Pinterest came to my rescue!! (Have I mentioned I love Pinterest??)
One of my friends posted a picture of a pretty little office desk and in the description she said it came from an amazing organizational blog. iheartorganizing.blogspot.com "hmmm..." I thought. So I checked it out.
Scrolling down the list of projects on the blog my eyes fell upon this...
I clicked.
All the world's problems were solved.
Ok, not really. But this was exactly what I was looking for!! It was a 5 part blog post about how she created this desk and the awesome part about it? It was completely customizable for anyone!
This is the design she had come up with on Excel and posted it as a road map to her plan. It included all kinds of cubby holes, drawers, boxes, and the same computer I have!
Best of all, the components to make up this type of workstation, are easily accessible. The two shelves on the side are IKEA bookcases, the top is a piece of heavy board set on each bookcase, and the shelf in the middle is it's own. I'd use the desk I already have in place of buying anything new - I love it and it's perfect for what I do.
The cool thing about those bookcases is that you can buy inserts for the cubby holes that allow for double drawers and cupboard doors.
I'm so excited to get my version of this set up. I won't mimic everything she did, she went into a lot of detail with wainscoting and molding along the top and bottom. I don't necessarily want to do that right now, but the general idea and set up is brilliant. She also went with an all white theme, I'm going with the black/brown version of the bookcases.
This was her final outcome. So cute!
My table will come out much further than a regular office desk and it's perfect! I'm still thinking of what configurations I want with drawers, shelves, and doors.
Here's the link to her beginning post: Custom Desk you can follow along to see how they put everything together.
Do you guys have any tips or trick on organizing an artist's studio?
Any thoughts on the set up or improvements you'd make if you built one?
