Reorganizing the Studio

I've been doing some organizing and tidying up of my studio. My so-called studio is a tiny room by the front door. If I were pretentious, I'd call it the parlour since it hardly qualifies as the living room. It's 12x12, but it also includes the staircase, front door, large opening into the dining room and the necessary open area to make it from one are to the other. High traffic!

Neatly folded fabric makes me happy!

I do a fair job at keeping things picked up and put away, but since the storage pieces I use are all mismatched and not attractive, I decided it was time to buy a little something to dress up part of the room and make things a little more orderly and not cluttered.

This looks so much better than what was there before! I'm going to replace the big lamp with a little one I have.

I bought two each of two styles of Closetmaid stackable units at Lowe's and they are perfect for the space and my budget. They're not the best quality, but I think they'll do the job. They are the first thing you see when walking in the front door, so I'm glad to have something more visually appealing. I still have a ton of fabric to re-fold to fit and other things to fill them up. The stairs are behind the new cubbies.

Here's the in-progress shot. Now to work so I can show you the after!

But like every organizing project, things always look worse for a time, while getting things moved around! The wire basket set and plastic drawer units in the rear left hand side of this photo are getting emptied and will find different uses somewhere else. The tall metal shelving unit has been partially emptied and hubby is going to break it into two shorter sets of shelves and make me a cutting table that breaks into two halves. It will replace the folding table and odd assortment of storage under it. I can't wait to get that done and show you.

We sat and talked a while and figured out what I needed and how it could best fit into the space without breaking the bank. (Oddly, he wasn't too wild about my idea of adding a room onto the house.) I'm hoping it will allow me to do more actual projects instead of being stymied by the visual clutter and the sometimes mental clutter that my work seems to produce.

I hope to have the "After" shot for you in a few days!

7 comments:

  1. Looking forward to seeing the final pics. I have exactly the same type of problems and need to do the same - it's on my to do list!

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    1. LOL, I'm looking forward to creating the neatness worthy of after pictures. Why are there so many distractions in my life? Oh yeah these cute little kids I love. It does feel good to get all neat and tidy.

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  2. That shelving unit is perfect! Using your fabrics to make an interesting visual display certainly catches the eye. And, really? Your husband didn't want to add another room onto the house for you? Unbelievable!

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    1. You’d think giving the man 3 wonderful children would earn me a room, wouldn’t you? Well, can’t complain, I DO have a room. I love how the uniformity of the cubes makes the storage it provides more eye appealing. Thanks for the comment.

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  3. Amy, my first impression upon glancing at the photos was, 'oh my, is that all the fabric she has?' Ha Then I read the captions. Looking good! I just recently bought some storage at Ikea and things in my 'studio' bedroom look so much better too.

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    1. Hi Nancy. Yes, pity me. I don't have enough fabric- said no quilter ever! I have gotten pretty brutal at purging the stash, but I have a bunch of fabric that I don't see me using. Maybe I'll keep it for "someday" or maybe a fabric giveaway here on the blog. Some of it is even fabric another quilter gave me!

      I looked at Ikea furniture for 2 days before I realized that the cost of shipping would double the cost of the units I was looking at. My nearest Ikea is 4 hours away, and I was considering a road trip or waiting until I could arrange to visit a friend that lives near an IKEA, but this works.

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  4. That's going to be a beautiful wall of color, I can already tell! Fabric can be used in so many ways, even S "art" before it's made into something else. I'll be looking forward to the finished results...isn't organizing fun? Or is that just me? :-)

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