Evert artist knows that a studio space quickly can turn into a a rather messy space, filled with art supplies, reference materials and all sort of other stuff . With paintings constantly moving from studio to gallery and back, with works in progress and paintings waiting for additional layers, I was drowning in stuff. I can not function in cluttered spaces and it was time for a drastic change.
There are photos of what my studio space used to look like here . The first things I wanted was more surface space and I removed a large book shelf and transfered all my books and bulky items like scanner and a very large file cabinet into a closet in the same room. With these items out of sight all the furniture pretty much is in the same level as my desk and this visually opened up the room quiet nicely and gave me the surface area I was looking for. I often need a secondary easel and rather than taking up floor space, I took off the legs to an old French easel. This works great as a secondary easel space.
Some of the items under the cabinet still need to be filed away, but now I have space to work on sketches and for doing last minute touch up work.
I tend to like a large palette set up and wanted enough space to be able to mix my palette without knocking over all the brushes that were sharing the same space. Brushes are now housed in these super cute containers from Ikea that are attachable to the wall. I also decided to tape my laminated Magic Palette Color Mixing Guide right on the taboret for fast and easy reference. All my paints and mediums are housed in the drawers of my desk for easy access. When I am painting the drawers are open and everything goes back in the minute I am done. No more clutter~
My reference material is often on my computer. As much as I wanted to have it eye level for when I am painting, I could not figure out a good way to do it. So now it sits on a lazy susan so that I can quickly move it towards any direction as needed.
Since I moved my desk all the way into the corner there now is enough room to move my easel around and to step back to see what needs to be done.
The last time I was speaking to my framer, he mentioned something about artists having a signature look for frames. I have been looking for a proper framing solution for quiet some time now and decided after a lot of trial and error to make my signature frames all white. When a client steps into my studio I want him to notice nothing but my paintings and by choosing a dark color - in this case an elephant brown/grey which just happens to be a mid value as well, my work stands out rather nicely.
To add some funk, I added these sheers that have white pok a dots. I was looking for a small comfortable chair for that corner, but did not find one. For now guest can sit in my chair.
Now to the best part, being the cost. I painted all my old shabby looking furniture a gloss white, which just happens to match my frames as well. By keeping it all uniform the room looks clean and fresh. Best of all any scuff marks can be easily touched up. The only thing I have spend some money on are the curtains which I found on sale at Target and my new office chair. It took about three weeks to get rid of a lot of junk, re-organize a closet and all the drawers plus paint the entire room and it's furniture.
I am very happy with the way it turned out and hope that you enjoyed a private tour of my studio space. Now let's hope it will stay this way :)
