Friday, July 24, 2009

A Little Studio Makeover

Thank you so much for the chair love, guys! It's always so cool to take something a little beat up from its prior life and transform it into something new and different to be loved all over again.

I took a little break to organize my very, very messy studio room. It's taken me over a year to work up the nerve and energy to tackle it but I'm so happy I did because it makes everything easier to find (and needless to say, is much more inspiring to be in). I cringe to show the before shots....but they're needed for the full effect:
...Yikes. This room became a full-out storage space for all of my art supplies. Because of the mess, I had long ago moved my painting operations into my living room (where there was space to actually *gasp* paint).

One week, lots of elbow grease, and countless donation runs to the thrift store later and this is what I have:A new and much needed Ikea bookcase (this year's birthday gift) to store most of my art and craft supplies.Honestly, I could fill up two of these huge suckers (which scares me, quite frankly) but I limited myself to keep only the necessities and donated a lot of items to the local thrift store to make room and be a bit more streamlined. Sketchbooks, ahoy!
A little bit of wall art (some by me, some by others).The bookcase is a room divider, allowing me to break up the room into two sections: creativity and business. This is a view of the "business" side of things. My art printer, computer, files, and all that jazz are located here. Business supplies are stored under the table and hidden by that snazzy red tablecloth.Some of my Victorian cabinet card collection on the wall.I have this old dollhouse my mom put together for me when I was a kid and I've held onto all these years (I'm a sucker for miniatures!). I've always just had it on the floor, but now it's displayed above a dresser that holds all of my decorative and collage papers. Eventually, the dresser will be replaced with a file cabinet so that the paper can be stored in a more organized fashion.Paper doll by the ever-fab Amy Earles (the bear head comes off to reveal a lovely Victorian lass!).A Decemberists poster done just right by Carson Ellis.

I still have a little more organizing to do, and need to hunt for a small desk/table for the space so I can move the painting operations into here, and may in the end be moving to a new town by the end of the year anyway (which would sorta make all of this work moot)...but all-in-all, it's quite the improvement for the time being. I can walk! I can find stuff! I'm inspired when I'm in here! Yay!

I'm off for some sketching and scheming and will return in a couple days to show you all sorts of new ideas and beginnings from the sketchbook innards. Until then, happy weekend!

6 comments:

sarahblank said...

wow, you really outdid yourself on this! Beautiful, inspiring studio. I am in love with the colors (the muted with the whites and the reds!) And it looks like it was SO much work too. Congrats!!
ps- and I love your dollhouse!!!

Rachel said...

I meant to get that particular shelf. Instead, I get the one that fits a giant tv in the center. c'est la vie.

It looks SO much better... hahaha... :) Where is this new town??? hmm???

Eggman Studios said...

Thank you, ladies! :)

Rachel--Too early to say, since nothing is set in stone and I'm still job hunting. But will let you know as soon as it's a bit more settled!

MarmeeCraft said...

Oh it's so elegant! :)

And I'm going to try your method of hanging old cabinet photos.....I have a wee collection that I've been itching to hang up....but have been at a loss as to how (without frames).....HOORAY! What a lovely idea! :) Thankeeee! :)

Eggman Studios said...

Yay! Thank you, Marjorie! :)

Elliott Broidy said...

It is stunning.