New Studio Space!

Hey guys! I FINALLY am able to show you the new area I've built up for my studio space.

I have one room to myself so I had to make it functional as a computer desk, painting desk, bookcase, and all over storage.  It was a big task but needed to be done as I had a huuuge mish-mash of old furniture barely able to hold all my "stuff".  It's amazing how much you can accumulate in art school...

Anyway.

After hunting around, I came upon a blog that held the perfect plans to my dilemma, you can read about it HERE.

Long story short, I was able to get all the parts I needed from Ikea and local hardware stores and I built the PERFECT workstation!! Here's a couple views of what I put together...

(I apologize for the fuzziness in them, due to how dark it is in my room all my working lights are pointed towards my desk.... doesn't help with photos LOL)

You can tell it's quite a bit different than the inspiration photos of her blog, but we both have different needs of our spaces.

Now for the components,

*The main desk I got years ago during art school.   It's built like a drafting table and can be hinged up and down.

*2 IKEA Expedit shelving units on each side.

LINK

* Then I have a piece of white shelf board I bought at a local hardware store, sitting atop each of the shelving units creating a deep shelf above the desk.  These were made for closet shelves I believe.  It's a heavy duty board that has a rounded edge so I didn't have to paint anything. 

*Underneath the top shelf, I have a floating shelf out of the same piece of board as the top.  I bought 2 cheap shelf hangers and fit it directly above my computer. A lot of my easy access tools are up there as well as some fun inspirational things. 

*Right up snug next to the right shelving unit is an Exedit bookcase I bought years ago.  This has been an amazing piece of furniture for me. I tilted it on its side and fit it perfectly alongside the shelving unit. 

LINK

As you can see in the pictures below, I have some drawer sets and cupboards in the shelf boxes.

These are amazing! They're shelf inserts from.. you guessed it! IKEA You build up the shelves, fit it into an insert box and then slide it into the square space of the unit. Brilliant. 

LINK

LINK

Now the rest of the contents of the desk were made up of many of my existing materials.  The only other things I purchased from Ikea were 5 packs of cardboard magazine boxes to hold upright materials like specialty papers, job files etc... I plan on covering those with fun papers to add a pop of color to the dark and white look to the desk.  

LINK

So there you have it! I'm super excited about this space and if you have checked out my post of the Fox and the Hound painting I did, you can see that a full size canvas fits on this desk! It has also been bolted to the wall so there's no danger of it falling over or moving around.  I'm so happy I discovered Jen at I Heart Organizing  Her idea of the desk was just incredibly inspiring and perfect for what I was looking for.  I think for everything - mind you, I already had the desk and the double Epedit unit, the cost was around $250. Which is nothing compared to what you would pay for a unit like this already put together.  And it's completely customizable! 

I'm still adding touches here and there, I lined all the drawers with fun paper and eventually, I'd like to cover the desktop in glass and be able to slide inspiration pieces underneath. But as far as adding anything else, for now I'm set! On the walls around the workstation, I'm collecting inspiring artwork and hope to have my own little art gallery all around me while I work.  That's an ongoing hunt :)

If you have any questions on how I put this together, please let me know in the comments and go check out Jen's blog!! 

Studio Space Update

Hey Guys!!

Really fast update, as it's 12:30am and I have to go back to work tomorrow (I LOVE 3 day weekends!).

I have all my parts together! ...wait, what?

I have all my studio parts together! haha!

Both sets of shelves have been put in, both bookcases, drawers inserted, doors hinged... it's been a LOT of work! But it's going to be so worth it in the end.  Now comes the daunting task of finding all the extra bits and pieces a home.  Or the trash. (that's another tough part)

I promise you a final reveal and "studio tour" when all is put back together.  You'll get to see my little bit of room/office/studio. :)

New Workstation!

Hey guys!

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?