THE STUDIO

My plan for the next few days is to blog a House Tour so (really bored people) can see our little updates and offer suggestions in places that I'm stuck. I've been in commando cleaning mode on and off and tackled the garage, a much needed endeavor. We gave away a lot of our unused things to goodwill and are slowly paring down to live more simply. That being said, I still have a lot of stuff. I am a hoarder for things that might be useful and I have about 30 different hobbies. Charley too is a "try a new hobby" person, so between the two of us we've got a little case of chaos. I've been working hard to ask myself  "now really, are you ever going to need that?".

I get tired out by cluttered workspaces, it bugs me so much that it's hard to work. But a clean efficient space begs to be used and that was my goal for the upstairs room dubbed "The Studio". In my head I've been referring to the room as "Backburner" (like telling myself not to put it on the back burner) so I think I unintentionally named my studio.

So here she is!! (I've labeled where things are stored):

Underneath the right side of the Drafting Table (from IKEA!) are four KASSET boxes. They are Cardboard but organize the needed things for that area. The VIVA line at IKEA is a series of legs and table tops that you can custom build for your needs. The drafting table legs move up and down for a flat or tilted surface. My favorite part is the light underneath the table. It is bought separately and attached to the table top. It allows you to trace and transfer with ease. A must for graphic arrangement and grids. For instance I can place a piece of graph paper on the light. Mark of some key measurements and then put my drawing on top. I  then don't have to put the measurement lines on my paper. 

And the Insides of these boxes:

This one is a bit of a mixed theme, it has my pastels , modpodge, wax sealing stamps, wax, ink and caligraphy pens. Basically, stuff I would do at the table is near the table. 

And It was so nice of Ikea to put little metal brackets for labels.

Behind the Bed are KASSET magazine files that hold my pottery barn magazines (inspiration!) and other magazines as well as my bound sketchbooks.

This is a lamp that my Mom gave me. Aren't moms great!?It had a rather unsightly lampshade (you know the tulip shaped bumpy ones) that was stained from age. To update it, I added this lampshade from Target that I found in the clearance for 65% off because it's binding was coming off, an easy fix to just glue back on. The mirror is also from my mom, it came from their bathroom and has a twin somewhere else in the house. I like it behind the lamp to bounce extra light on the workspace.

  And for those of you wondering what's hiding in the closet (I'm not going to open it because it's still a bit messy and there are lots of things in there that aren't ours):

And over in the "sewing corner" of the room, the white KASSET boxes again hold the needed supplies. Below them in the Dresser, the drawers are mostly empty (I'm not through varnishing three of the drawers). They are being filled with different hobby themes. The top left contains my acrylic paint and glass palettes. Next to that is Charley's whittling things. Next to that are my candle making pot and wax...and so on and so forth.

And to end, here is the room with the lights off :) I'm still looking for cooler chairs , probably from  His House or Goodwill that are  comfy  and yet have a better footprint than the gray office chairs (EW). I  saw one online at IKEA that I love, it's acrylic and modern, but not as cheap. Does anyone have any suggestions?