CHAOS IN THE CORNER – STUDIO REORGANISING PART 1
I had to call a halt on my album project temporarily, to sort out some of the chaos in the studio.
I managed to tidy the far side of the room which had been a dumping ground for months and it’s nice to see it civilised again.
To the right of my messy work area there is a corner which has been driving me nuts for ages. It’s always been untidy, and after I moved my large tower unit storing my ink pads to that side of the desk, it was worse. The tower is on a revolving base and takes up a lot of room when you turn it, and it was always catching on things. The area beyond it was very difficult to access.
The crunch finally came when the paint brush holder started to collapse. I’ve always hated this thing. It’s difficult to use because you are supposed to line up the brush with the space vertically beneath the hole where you insert it, and I could never be bothered with this. The brushes always ended up diagonally and half the time falling out altogether.
When it collapsed, it was the push I needed to start organising the awful chaos.
The wooden box with sections came from my Dad’s workshop. It contains smaller pots of glue and various ink blending pads. Beside it, within easy reach, were the tools I use all the time – knife, pokey tool, bone folder etc. The wipes packet was always on top, getting in the way. I have also recently acquired quite a few new punches. Most of the larger punches live in a box underneath this area and it’s difficult to pull out, so mostly they have been ending up cluttering up the desk. Recently I put them in a small Really Useful Box which I put on top of the ink pad storage tower but that box wasn’t big enough.
I did some online research to see how other people stored their punches. These punches are quite large, and all different shapes and sizes, so it’s not easy to store them and at the same time have them readily available to use.
Then I came across someone who had a letter storage unit from Ikea. This is made of metal, and has several shallow drawers that pull right out, and are lined with cork. She lays all her punches on these drawers and can see them at a glance, and can easily access them. I knew this was the solution for me, and after measuring the space in the awful corner to make sure it would fit, I ordered one from Ikea.
While waiting for it to come, I removed the collapsing paint brush holder, whereupon it collapsed completely.
Definitely time to do something about this! I am doing another post about making a new brush holder while I wait for the punch storage unit to arrive, so I’ll leave that particular bit of chaos for now.
A new storage trolley
In my studio, there is a series of kitchen units around three of the four walls, supporting a sweeping continuous MDF work surface, which I have divided into different zones, for example my “clean” work area for drawing, watercolour painting and calligraphy, and my “messy” work area for mixed media involving inks, acrylic paints, glue and so on. Other areas include my sewing area and ironing corner, and one whole wall where there is no work surface is occupied by large storage shelves.
Several of the kitchen units are free-standing and on casters so they can be pulled out. It struck me that since I could only sit in one place at a time, I might as well fill the sitting areas with moveable storage. Eventually I had the two from the most frequently-used areas permanently pulled out, and pushed together in the centre of the room, to provide a large working surface where I can do tea dyeing and other large scale wet work.
I always access the further end of the room by walking to the right of this pull-out unit. The space to the left is too small for access. There is a narrow floor unit there where I store cardstock and envelopes that I don’t use regularly, and it occurred to me that I could put a trolley there, which would join the dirty work surface to the pull-out units. If I needed to access that floor unit, it would be a simple matter to move the trolley out of the way. I could put the ink pad storage tower on it, thus freeing up space in the chaos corner and enabling me to access it better.
I did some more online research to find out which was the best storage trolley unit for art/craft rooms and one particular one was top of the list. I found it on Amazon and it arrived last week. It fills the space exactly, and is similar in height to the surfaces either side, and it has eight sturdy plastic drawers and a metal frame, with a wooden top.
Over my clean work area, in front of the window, I have a metal shelving unit with a pegboard. I have been storing small cardboard boxes on top of this, containing all my album ephemera stuff, and they have been blocking the light from the window. This is how it looked when I first installed it, before I added the boxes.
These boxes fit nicely, two to a drawer, in the new unit, so I have moved them there. Their labels are visible from the front.
The ink pad storage tower now sits on top, and revolves freely without obstruction.
The chaos corner is now pretty much clear, with the frequently used tools in the top drawer of the trolley unit, and all the paint brushes waiting for their new storage container. The space under the wall unit is where the punch storage unit will go. There will be space on top of it for smaller items.
There is still chaos on the messy desk until the punches can get put away. You can see the corner of the small box I’ve been using to store the punches, sitting on the pull-out unit.
This new trolley unit takes up very little room and fits perfectly where I’ve put it. The ink pad storage tower is still within easy reach and much easier to use now it turns freely. I am very pleased with this arrangement and enjoying the benefits already. Once the punch storage unit arrives, and I finish making the paint brush holder, things are going to be great in the main work area of my studio. Watch this space – literally!
