My art workspace is dedicated to Saint Luke, the Patron Saint of artists, he himself being an artist, a physician, and the very skilled writer of two books in the New Testament.
As you can see above I almost had a heart attack when pricing "wall organizer" items and instead of purchasing those over-priced things I dug around in the house and dairy. Much to my delight I discovered an assortment of tins and other containers that Husband then attatched to the wall using his concrete drill. (Some of the containers are hung by strong velcro ~ we'll see if that lasts!) Now all of my most heavily used art tools will be readily at hand instead of buried inside of boxes and bins inside of a shelf. Much better! As you can see the mismatched hodge podge of cups, popsicle bin, tins, old plastic food storage containers, and even an incense canister have managed to work well together in a funky artsy sort of way. Not bad!
Above sits one of the yellow shelves ~ I've done my best to utilize every bit of available space including the tight area above the window. My goal here is to be able to organize the various work spaces of the dairy studio in such a way that everything is easy to get at without having to paw through piles of clutter. Less avalanches that way! If I want to make a cup of tea I can simply reach for a teacup without breaking three others in the process. ;-)
One thing I have discovered during this adventure is that I don't do well with organizing things inside of solid boxes and tins. I end up having a very hard time remember what is where and even labels can leave you not 100% certain of the contents. I managed to find some inexpensive clear boxes at a local office supply shop that solved the problem perfectly! (I will still use some solid storage for some things, sure.) Again, the goal is to make things
easy to access and locate without me (or anyone else) wasting large chunks of valuable free time hunting in vain... I mean, nothing kills the creative momentum like the frustration of trying to find that one single thing you absolutely need in order to carry on! Arrrg... been there, done that too many times lol
It is really nice to have a space dedicated specifically to creativity, be it art, crafts, soapmaking, cooking, or writing. Now all of my instruction dvds, books, articles, etc. are in one place and right there when I need them! No more having to try and find things upstairs in the main "library" (tiny room with shelves hehehe) or maybe kicking around in the livingroom or stashed in the attic ~ if I want to work on a craft or art technique or homesteading skill I will have the information right there in the same creative space where I am working.
I found that tree wall art on sale on the Internet and I just LOVE it! Up close the leaves are actually really cute ~ they are "made" of various fabrics, even newspaper clippings. I've found that being surrounded by creative things helps to inspire me in so many ways! It's rather interesting that I prefer my creative space to be organized but in a sense totally cluttered with mismatched funky this-and-that, clashing colours, and enough visual "activity" to make you dizzy. If this were Feng Shui I'd have to call it, "Merry-Go-Round" ...
As you can see above I almost had a heart attack when pricing "wall organizer" items and instead of purchasing those over-priced things I dug around in the house and dairy. Much to my delight I discovered an assortment of tins and other containers that Husband then attatched to the wall using his concrete drill. (Some of the containers are hung by strong velcro ~ we'll see if that lasts!) Now all of my most heavily used art tools will be readily at hand instead of buried inside of boxes and bins inside of a shelf. Much better! As you can see the mismatched hodge podge of cups, popsicle bin, tins, old plastic food storage containers, and even an incense canister have managed to work well together in a funky artsy sort of way. Not bad!
Above sits one of the yellow shelves ~ I've done my best to utilize every bit of available space including the tight area above the window. My goal here is to be able to organize the various work spaces of the dairy studio in such a way that everything is easy to get at without having to paw through piles of clutter. Less avalanches that way! If I want to make a cup of tea I can simply reach for a teacup without breaking three others in the process. ;-)
One thing I have discovered during this adventure is that I don't do well with organizing things inside of solid boxes and tins. I end up having a very hard time remember what is where and even labels can leave you not 100% certain of the contents. I managed to find some inexpensive clear boxes at a local office supply shop that solved the problem perfectly! (I will still use some solid storage for some things, sure.) Again, the goal is to make things easy to access and locate without me (or anyone else) wasting large chunks of valuable free time hunting in vain... I mean, nothing kills the creative momentum like the frustration of trying to find that one single thing you absolutely need in order to carry on! Arrrg... been there, done that too many times lol
It is really nice to have a space dedicated specifically to creativity, be it art, crafts, soapmaking, cooking, or writing. Now all of my instruction dvds, books, articles, etc. are in one place and right there when I need them! No more having to try and find things upstairs in the main "library" (tiny room with shelves hehehe) or maybe kicking around in the livingroom or stashed in the attic ~ if I want to work on a craft or art technique or homesteading skill I will have the information right there in the same creative space where I am working.
I found that tree wall art on sale on the Internet and I just LOVE it! Up close the leaves are actually really cute ~ they are "made" of various fabrics, even newspaper clippings. I've found that being surrounded by creative things helps to inspire me in so many ways! It's rather interesting that I prefer my creative space to be organized but in a sense totally cluttered with mismatched funky this-and-that, clashing colours, and enough visual "activity" to make you dizzy. If this were Feng Shui I'd have to call it, "Merry-Go-Round" ...
10 comments:
What a wonderful place !!
I'm jealous ! everything is so nicely organized and those colors are so pretty !
Very good job Michelle and Erlend !
Super! Like the idea of a place for everything... and, can remember where it is! Your husband is a dear to be so very helpful! It will be a place to enjoy with yhe children--is the floor warm enough for the winter?
Michelle, do you have any moisture issues in your space there? I am wondering about how to handle this for my own remodel...
What a cozy, wonderful room! I love it! I hope you enjoy it and it inspires your creativity.
This building is a detatched solid concrete rectangle, uninsulated, made of concrete blocks, very basic!
The interior dimensions are 9' by 20' with a concrete floor and asbestos ceiling panels. The very small loft space is uninsulated and the roof is made from corroated asbestos sheets.
So we have several issues to deal with here: the building was built to stay cool for storing cheese and milk as this used to be a dairy farm. That means it's rather cold inside year round! We found a lovely royal royal blue wool carpet cut-off and had it put down with underlay. That has made the floor lovely and soft and also very warm!
We use a dehumidifyer (sp??) pretty much around the clock. We also have a wall mounted fan heater that puts out 2 kilowatts of heat. I think in winter this won't be enough so I probably won't be engaged in drawing pictures!! But we'll still go out there to play, only bundled up lol
Over the next five years we hope to insulate the loft, build a tiny entryway, kinda the size of a phone box haha!, wrap the building in clappboarding with insulation between, and replace the two old windows with modern windows. We hope that this will help with the humidity and the heating issues!
Until then winter is going to be rough out there in the dairy and the dehumidifyer will be the only thing that saves the books from being warped. That thing fills up within three or four days!!!! If we have a rare dry air then it might take a week, but that is deffinately rare.
I would not want to try and dehumidify and heat a similar but larger building! That would get very expensive.
We've had the entire dairy re-wired so that we can have excellent lighting everywhere. This is also going to be our homsechool command headquarters as well as an art and homestead studio! The lighting is now so wonderful I could cry lol (beforehand it was two bare light bulbs dangling from the ceiling...)
Muriel ~ my only regret is that I can't share the dairy studio with more people!!
fantastic Michelle. I really hope I can organise this new house of ours.
in the winter your best bet would be a wood burning stove.
also becareful when removing the roof. you are supposed to have it removed by a specialist and it costs a bomb to dispose of. you can if you are lucky, take it down with the help or 2 men. we have a garage with a roof of that stuff. we keep fining builders seem to laugh and quote some huge amount to take it down and away...
have you thought about a labelling machine for the ends of the shelves so things go back in the right place (what box...)
Congratulations, Michelle. What an achievement! It takes so much work to organise a space like this -- can't wait to see it in person.
Happily we're not taking down the roof. Just insulating the loft
:-)
I love your colorful spaces and your organizing containers. =)
You can also use shoe boxes or even sturdy cereal / oatmeal boxes, wrap them in wrapping paper or wallpaper, etc and paste them to the wall as well.
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