Open Studio

So...more than a couple of days later my Studio is finally approaching a point at which it finally feels organised....what better time for a tour!

My room is a touch over 3m wide x 5m long.  It was the only room I really planned out in my head before we moved.  I didn't want to overcrowd it with furniture and for the most part I wanted to keep it uncluttered.  Difficult when you have as much paper and fabric as I do but I'm pretty happy with my organisation right now.

Furniture is pretty much all from Ikea...the drawers were in the kids' rooms but they all have big built ins now so I claimed them to replace the sideboard I'd been using for the past 4 years and now takes pride of place in the hallway.

I have 2 long tables, one old and one new.  A 4x2 expedit which was surplus to our needs inside and 2 new 2x2's

We had 4 billy bookcases all in a row in our last 2 houses but we can only fit 3 in a row in our new house so I grabbed the spare (sorry Lauren & Jess).

The sewing table is out original kitchen table, $99 including 4 chairs from the reject shop in Mt Isa, it has served me well over the years!  The table cloth hides a paint & glue splattered, slightly beaten looking tabletop.

Steven, having painted the long side wall cream to replace the rather overwhelming red colour it was, has not yet been coaxed back into the studio to put a few screws in the walls.  I'm particularly waiting for him to hang my thread rack for me so I can get rid of the shoebox that is currently holding all my threads.  I'm also yet to track down a powerboard to plug in my sewing machines.

The 'rainbow bowls' on my table are $3 glass salad bowls from Kmart that I am using to sort my 'bits' into.  The leftover bits with no homes are always my biggest barrier to a proper clean up job.  One of the classrooms at the kids' school has textas and pencils sorted by colour in jars along the window and it makes me happy whenever I see them...that was my inspiration for the bowls.  Steven is troubled by the 'wasted space' underneath them.  I told him not to worry, it's not his concern and to kindly stop rearranging them.

A cheapie wooden tray (also from Kmart) is home to a bunch of pasta jars I have been saving for several months now.  The Woolies Select ones are a great shape with a wide enough mouth that you can fit your hand inside.  I have sorted pens, pencils, tools, brushes and more into them and filled the rest of the tray with tape, adhesives and other tools.

I've set up my painting and fabric cutting mats at one end of the table, invested in a new paper trimmer and marvelled at the sheer quantity of patterned paper I have collected over the past (nearly) 7 years.

I've got a few little artworks here and there and will collect more to hang although I want to keep the long blank wall mostly blank.

The hanging rack is all set up ready for me to start hanging things on when I fire up the sewing machines again.

The hideous pink chairs need to be replaced, all in good time.

There is room for 2 to scrap without any reorganisation and I could happily fit 4 with a bit of shifting around.

All in all I'm pretty happy with how it is looking at the moment.  The drawers still need some organisation, but I'll tackle them one at a time.  At the moment I'd say 5 of the 12 are organised, but they all shut ;)

Looking forward to spending time working and chatting out there, enjoying it and making it my own.

Tatum xx