Workspace Organization

Before

After

This week must be workplace organization because my friend Helen posted pictures of redoing her workspace.  Hers was a much more complete redo than mine, including painting and it turned out just lovely with plenty of space to produce and contemplate.  You can check it out at http://wordweaverart.blogspot.com.  Also take a moment to peruse her blog, her imagination and creativity will inspire you, I promise.

I have space, but have a lot of stuff I have acquired over the years.  Currently I have stuffed bookcases, stuffed closet, junk on the floor, frames shelter skelter and it just needs some work.  I just haven't it done very well putting it together as I have used, for years, things we had rather than starting from scratch and building a good system.  I also am not the neatest and like my piles.   Piles are my idea of knowing what's going on in my life.  I know what's in the piles but eventually I have to stop everything, shovel it out and start cleaner again until the next time.  Always with the promise that I will do better and not end up in the same situation again.

I have been studio dreaming for well over a year now, looking at Pinterest, other artist blogs, Houzz, etc.  But I don't want big, bulky, heavy or expensive.  Since I can't really go horizontal, I got the room filled, I will need to go more vertical and make better use of my floor space.  So empty floor space under my side table, where I stacked stuff, was my first project.   Still got my corner to figure out, had it but Paul didn't like the idea so back to the drawing board.    But I am picky, I don't want to use the fake wood formaldehyde furniture or plastic and Paulie doesn't want the warehouse steel look, so I needed to go with real wood.  Not sure yet whether to paint or stain the wood crates.  I do have a teak wood bookcase, desk top and stereo bench on the other side of the wet area above, so stain might be the best option to kind of pull it together.  

Oh yes I did my measuring, my drawing on paper with  measurements trying to visualize what it could look like.   Looked up things in Ikea and online all the while dreaming.  I tried to figure out what I needed to store and how best to do it.  Of course when reality set in I had to make changes and adjustments to how I thought would fit, measuring wasn't really accurate as height, width and depth aren't always measured the same way.  But now, fit it does, much better, and I got all those small odd shaped things more organized into wood crates, using them kind of like drawers under the dead space that is the small table top that I can how actually spread out on because it is clear rather than holding my pastel boxes, pencils small bottles of paint etc.  Thank you dollar store for some cheap options of baskets to store things inside the crate to better utilize the space.  

Also got my drawing table cleaned up so I now have lots more space and can set my iPad on it for a better view of reference to painting.   Also not knocking things onto the floor when my elbows hit the corners.   Got some clean padded paper on there as well.  You can see my brushes and color pencils in coffee cans easily accessible.  Some of my pastels are in the drawers there, they are organized according to value in the drawers and then I have several other sets stored now under my table.    You can see my air purifier in the corner and I have some of my color charts also hanging (yes I am still making them before I start, almost - sigh, each painting).  

Alas, not sure how long this will last, probably not long, but for the moment I look and feel organized.  Will be  interesting to see how much  it is going to annoy me to have to move things to get into those crates.  

Hope this gets you thinking and maybe a gem of an idea might work for you - you have suggestions for how you organize, please share.  Thanks much for stopping by and hope you are having a great weekend.  Off to paint now!!!