colleenc
Well-known member
I live in a small ( 300sq foot) cottage so my "studio" is a nook 6.5 feet by 8 feet. Recently I've gotten more commissions at once than I've ever hado
and had to figure out how to get an easel in the space as my shoulder, elbow and back were complaining about trying to work in an non ergonomic position...before I had one long 6 ' table and a table easel and stuff every where. Years ago in Hawaii I had designed and helped build a series of koa boxes that all fit together in various configurations ( my friend who helped me build them called it high class crate decor, and now koa is so rare and hard to find, then it was available all over the island) So desparate, I thought and spent endless time thinking about how to get it organized and working and get more space.
Just in case you are in a small space place thought I'd share the result, took one week and I just finished and it may never be this clean again:-O
I took out the table and put in a drafting table I cut down to 42 x 25. I will replace the wooden table easle with a Feather tripod that fits on a table or full size, I can use for plein air and take it off to have more space for watercolor. I used one of the koa boxes to lift the screen up, and store my mini mac so doubled that space, printer is behind that on more koa boxes that store books and pencils and on the bottom all the computer wires, surge protecter and stuff. Built a thin shelf to fit on the cross bar of the draft table which holds pallets and some pastel storage boxes., next to that is the new member of my family a real easel, where I can adjust to sit or stand work....made of sustainable Lyptus wood, made by Jack Richeson, and just over $100 at AWS, with free shipping !...very sturdy, but a little smaller foot print than most, and light enough I can move it.
On the other wall I put in a new book shelf(real cheapo) and anchored it to the wall, has 2 shelves that can hold 50# but probably exceeded that with the pastels and had 1 inch to spare, and restacked the koa boxes, and completely reorganized everything. The good part of that is doing it all at once I could really figure out where to put it in a way that works with how I use it. Like all the oil painting stuff in now in one area, same for pastel, watercolor, gouache, and sculpture.....yes All that in one little studio....too bad I dont have a yen for just one media. Pastels take up the most room.
Painting boards store in a crate that just fits between the cross bars of the easel, stacking slide out drawers on shelves hold paint tubes, and other small stuff. As you can see it's a dark cave, so I have 3 daylight balanced lights that make it work on dark days or at night.
The weird thing is with 5 new shelves, and and 10 new drawers I still could not fit in all the stuff I had before....at the very end I had one box of files, I figured since I hadn't seen them in a year, I'd just toss them without looking and see if the world ended.
Big plus now is I can take a step and and a half away from my work and not turn sidewise to get into the space... and I can work on 2 pieces at once to speed up production. Every inch is used, and flexible for whatever media I need.
I know this may seem weird to make a big deal of this , but in the tiny space I have here I've put out way more work and gotten more national and international recognition for my work than any other time in my art life, even when I had perfectly lit studios with 4 times the space and all the bells and whistles...in case your are wondering why I don't move....I love where I live, out in the country on a big property with horses, wild turkeys, bobcat, otter, and from my window I can't see any other building, or houses...but only 10 min from the grocery store etc....
Anyway after a week of cleaning, painting, patching lifting, sawing, sanding and changing things around several times, then taking half of it out again to put in a piece of plywood under the rug so my chair would roll, I was so tired and happy I decided to put it down for posterity... I'll be getting a bamboo bead fringe thing to hang in front of the shelves so I don't have all the clutter to see, yet reach through to what ever I need without doors or other hinderances.
Now after a week of hard work, back to painting again!
and had to figure out how to get an easel in the space as my shoulder, elbow and back were complaining about trying to work in an non ergonomic position...before I had one long 6 ' table and a table easel and stuff every where. Years ago in Hawaii I had designed and helped build a series of koa boxes that all fit together in various configurations ( my friend who helped me build them called it high class crate decor, and now koa is so rare and hard to find, then it was available all over the island) So desparate, I thought and spent endless time thinking about how to get it organized and working and get more space.
Just in case you are in a small space place thought I'd share the result, took one week and I just finished and it may never be this clean again:-O
I took out the table and put in a drafting table I cut down to 42 x 25. I will replace the wooden table easle with a Feather tripod that fits on a table or full size, I can use for plein air and take it off to have more space for watercolor. I used one of the koa boxes to lift the screen up, and store my mini mac so doubled that space, printer is behind that on more koa boxes that store books and pencils and on the bottom all the computer wires, surge protecter and stuff. Built a thin shelf to fit on the cross bar of the draft table which holds pallets and some pastel storage boxes., next to that is the new member of my family a real easel, where I can adjust to sit or stand work....made of sustainable Lyptus wood, made by Jack Richeson, and just over $100 at AWS, with free shipping !...very sturdy, but a little smaller foot print than most, and light enough I can move it.
On the other wall I put in a new book shelf(real cheapo) and anchored it to the wall, has 2 shelves that can hold 50# but probably exceeded that with the pastels and had 1 inch to spare, and restacked the koa boxes, and completely reorganized everything. The good part of that is doing it all at once I could really figure out where to put it in a way that works with how I use it. Like all the oil painting stuff in now in one area, same for pastel, watercolor, gouache, and sculpture.....yes All that in one little studio....too bad I dont have a yen for just one media. Pastels take up the most room.
Painting boards store in a crate that just fits between the cross bars of the easel, stacking slide out drawers on shelves hold paint tubes, and other small stuff. As you can see it's a dark cave, so I have 3 daylight balanced lights that make it work on dark days or at night.
The weird thing is with 5 new shelves, and and 10 new drawers I still could not fit in all the stuff I had before....at the very end I had one box of files, I figured since I hadn't seen them in a year, I'd just toss them without looking and see if the world ended.
Big plus now is I can take a step and and a half away from my work and not turn sidewise to get into the space... and I can work on 2 pieces at once to speed up production. Every inch is used, and flexible for whatever media I need.
I know this may seem weird to make a big deal of this , but in the tiny space I have here I've put out way more work and gotten more national and international recognition for my work than any other time in my art life, even when I had perfectly lit studios with 4 times the space and all the bells and whistles...in case your are wondering why I don't move....I love where I live, out in the country on a big property with horses, wild turkeys, bobcat, otter, and from my window I can't see any other building, or houses...but only 10 min from the grocery store etc....
Anyway after a week of cleaning, painting, patching lifting, sawing, sanding and changing things around several times, then taking half of it out again to put in a piece of plywood under the rug so my chair would roll, I was so tired and happy I decided to put it down for posterity... I'll be getting a bamboo bead fringe thing to hang in front of the shelves so I don't have all the clutter to see, yet reach through to what ever I need without doors or other hinderances.
Now after a week of hard work, back to painting again!
Attachments
Last edited:
