Art Studio Cleanup and Organization

CLEAN STUDIO-AFTER

MESSY STUDIO-BEFORE

After putting away all the Christmas decorations and getting my house back in order, I decided to tackle a very overdue project---MY MESSY STUDIO.  Since these past few days in January have been rather dreary and gloomy, I have put my time to good use by putting some order back into my studio!  For the last few years I have used an unfinished door that I bought for $8 at Habitat Restore.  I stained it and it made a very nice desktop atop some old filing cabinets for my studio.  As  you can see, it also allowed me to put anything and everything I had in my hands on it!.  My husband would always shake his head when he comes into my studio and ask me how I can operate with a mess like that but I have to be IN THE MOOD to take on a project like that.  These dreary days prompted me to clean up my act!  It actually has stayed this clean for several days now!  

These chrome storage shelves were ordered from Amazon because we could not find the size I wanted (72"x36"x24") in our local stores.  It arrived in two days, was easy to put together and Steve inserted these dowels in between each shelf to hold things upright and separate the multitude of frames and old canvases that I wanted to store.  I found some never used carpet remnants in the attic from when our house was built 13 years ago and they provide the perfect cushion so frames, etc do not get damaged.  Now everything is in its place and very easy to locate.

You will notice that I have not posted any photos of the OTHER SIDE of my studio!  Actually it is not that bad-just a little cluttered.

A little bit of organization

ORGANIZING MY TOYS

The month of January usually propels most people to organize, de-clutter and rearrange.  I am no exception and decided to tackle a portion of my studio where many of my "toys" are.  My paint tube supply has grown and grown and I felt the need to group them by color so I can easily reach for a color that I need.

The fabulous Dreama Tolle Perry has a category on her website with a listing for her "Favorite Things" and I have been eyeing this ArtBin IDS box and felt this was my solution to group all my paints so they can be easily seen.

I ordered two ArtBins from Amazon for my smaller tubes of paints and then discovered some very similar plastic containers in our garage that were not being used that would be perfect for my larger tubes.  I have positioned this small bookcase to the left of my easel so all my colors are readily available.  Of course, artists who use a limited palette of colors do not have this problem but my collection of paints was getting out of control and this solves my dilemma.

Dreama uses this box to stand her tubes up so she can easily squeeze out more paint on her palette while she is painting her demos at her workshops and if it is good enough for Dreama, then it is good enough for me!