February 28, 2008

• As promised, the results of our studio-space makeover.

  A little background first: Matty and I live on the first floor of  a
  big old house on a hill, with high ceilings and huge windows that let
  in all kinds of light. It’s even got a [defunct] marble fireplace in
  the main room, which plays host to a couple of gargoyles, a Buddha,
  some rocks, lots of photos and a bunch of artwork. We’ve lived here for about a year, and it is home. We absolutely love the place,
  and with the exception of the stupid frigging oil furnace, we have
  loved it ever since we first walked in the door.

  At first we crammed all of our studio stuff into the second bedroom,
  and that worked pretty well for some time. It was a little cramped
  because of the narrow shape, plus the rabbit’s stuff, books, stereo,
  computers, etc were all in there with us; and overall it simply wasn’t
  as lovely and bright and airy as the living room. As it happens we don’t get many
  guests, and we don’t do a lot of sitting around, so the front room was
  always disused and vacant- such a shame!

  However, this summer, I kept
  finding myself wanting to hang out around the big bay window in the
  front room, and sit in the sunshine that came streaming in everyday.
  But all my art stuff was in the little room! So the living room wasn’t
  optimally cozy for just -living- in, and the workspace wasn’t as
  appealing as it could be for art-making. and as you have probably
  noticed, making art is an important endeavor in this household.

  
  This is an eclectic photo-panorama of the original studio setup; clicky for large.
  There sure was a lot going on in there.

  
  And this is the original livingroom setup, which was a total waste of space.

  So then I hit on a plan: we’ll do the ol’ switcheroo on the two rooms!
  Move the workspace into the big beautiful front room, where we’ll have plenty
  of space to create, and set up the little room as a quiet, relaxing
  lounge area.   Plus it ‘s an excuse to hit up Ikea, and what’s not to love about that?

  

  So I drew up some plans, took a lot of measurements, and planned out what we’d need for new furniture in shelving. I got us a bunch of modular bookcases and a new desk for Matt, and as a treat I also bought the coffee table we wanted for the new loungey room; it has a glass top and compartments underneath for displaying little treasures.

  
  Here’s our cozy room, formerly known as the studio.
  Ugmoe the rabbit likes it better this way.

  
  And voila! part of the new studio. Did I mention I have a lot of stuff? because i have a lot of stuff. yep.

  
  Hey, this is where i write my blog! neat.

  
  Matt’s workspace. Hey, look, a godzilla clock!

  
  And in the big bay window, a space for painting. Oh, blank canvas, how you taunt me…….

  All in all, it worked out pretty good. I’m pretty proud of my design skills on ths one. I  was able to make do with a lot of things we already had, simply by arranging them more efficiently. I still have a few things to sort out, and details like curtains and shelves and framed art still need to be addressed, but we’re really happy and it’s pretty wonderful so far!

  • 5:21 pm
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