I'm Stumped - I Need Your Saavy Design Tips Please

[~RE Ausetkmt]

What Does Your Workspace Look Like ? and What Special Tips and Tools have you incorporated into it to make it More Functional and YOU ??

I'd so love to see everyone's workspaces - so this is an old pic of my work bench; with a purse on it; as it was before the move started. well with the move wrapping up and me being in the unpacking and re-set up stages, I thought I wanted to get some tips from my saavy designer friends - to make it More Me and Better Workwise.

So PLUUUUUUU- EEEZZZZZZ Help a Frustrated Artist - Get Her Studio Back Up and Running Ladies, oooops, and Gent.

I need all kinds of ideas.

like storage ideas - unorthodox is fine as I use everything that I can for
space reclaimation. I have several shelving units that I've yet to redeploy;
to strategic locations - to hold those often used items.

I always have the Ikea option available to me; LOL
BUT I'd rather see what Ideas My Saavy Artisan Pals have to offer first;
So help me out Please

I sew, do jewelry, graphic design, and assorted crafts; so for me, space
is important. I have one room to use, with a full closet. I also have a wall
of windows that takes up one half of one wall - which is where my sewing
machines are presently. I also have a sewing form, sewing cabinet and a
4 drawer storage chest which is full of fabric and notions - topped off with
60+ boxes of beads - honestly.

Happy Mama AFRIKA Day to All My Fellow Empresses

~RE

[cheryl]

I'm going to provide a response to this when I'm awake. It's so awfully late right now that I'm delirious.

[~RE Ausetkmt]

oooooooooo Cheryl
is this your studio ??

Thanks Cher,
ooooo do I envy you.
so the storage against the wall in the containers;
is it anchored or how does it work sweets ?
and how is the base constructed .. ooo looks fabulous.

is that paint in a rack ? did you get that from a craftstore ?

I love the table and chair combination.

[cheryl]

Hah! That's the picture of it during the first month or so that I'd set it up. Later I'd replaced the small table with my long folding one. Now the brown one's back. It's much more messy at the moment. It's not even been in use much because I've been doing everything in the living room. It's ended up being daily temp storage. I'm setting up a different one though, and I'll take a pic when it's done.

Nope, not anchored. Works just as you see it ... on top of the shelving unit, pushed against the wall. I dunno about the base ... I picked it up from a used furniture store for $10 or something like that. I think it used to be an entertainment unit. An early one, for it's pretty heavy.

Yes my neighbour bought the revolving paint rack for me from Michael's craft store. She got it on a real good sale. I was so happy to have it! I just looked at their store (did a search for "paint rack") and it looks like Provo Craft made it. Michaels.com calls it a spinner rack.

Hahahaaaaaa ... that's a chair from my dining set. I don't even have a chair for crafting. Well, it's become that for I've found that it's comfortable enough, y'know? That table I love crafting on ... I bought it many years ago from an antique store. I know I got ripped off but I was glad for it anyway. I needed a table for my children and I to eat on. Where we'd moved to was too small for anything larger. It is too small for crafting, but the feeling is so in sync with how I feel about what I'm doing. It's good for my mind to craft on that table, as opposed to the folding table I was using. I'll probably use both in the kitchen. It's tempting to cover the long plastic/resin one with a cloth but the cloth will often become askew and I don't need that. haha

[~RE Ausetkmt]

here are the photos I just took of my totally disorganized still to be unpacked studio space.
I have yet to decide on anything, at all - other than to get it unpacked before the end of
this month.

here's the bench -

here's the tools just piled up on top of the bench

here's the wall beside of the sewing machine

and here's the Bead Boxes stacked up on top of the fabric storage bureau

[cheryl]

WOW! LOOK AT BEADS! Do the boxes have drawers? I use little stackable containers. When I first started, I bought many flower-shaped stacked containers but they were a nuisance for me ... when stacked, they very easily tipped over, even if only a few were stacked. I couldn't be careful enough when transporting them. So, I bought little plastic stackable containers with tight lids (but easily removable lids so that they didn't end up flying out of my hand when removing the lid). I tested the container by dropping it. The lid didn't fly off, nor even open a little bit. They were rather expensive, imo, but have been well worth it. I bought some other ones from the dollar store, and they're OK as stationary containers but I feel much safer with the Rubbermaid ones.

[~RE Ausetkmt]

I like those individual containers for larger bead caches;
but I have soooooooooooooooo many beads that these
individual segmented snap lid boxes work well. they stack
well too when they are siting beside my bench.

the dollar store here occasionally has rubbermaid containers
and when I see theml I scoop them up too. but I must admit that
I use the cheappo's for beads since I go through them by the case.

the plastic boxes come in a case of 12 - from the wholesaler.
so as you can see I've purchased several cases. now I want to
come up with a storage system just for the bead boxes.

[Akua Lezli Hope]

I'm still unpacking and moving things around. I've got those plastic boxes, and rubbermaid clear
boxes stacked on dolles with caster... i just bought two more dollies with casters from eBay, i bought a set of drawers on wheels from overstock ... one of the scrpbookgin but inn brown and steel I have a still mostly clear six foot fold in half table... i use metal soup cans-- love the look-- for pencils, pens, scissors, brushes, knitting needles, pencils, colored pencils, kniove, files are in the staples file storage boxes with handles, papers are in clear platic boxes with lids from staples. ...i've got a coupe of sterlite drawer chests...

one of my best organizing purchases was the pizza/dirty dish/baking tray cart,,, got from a restaurant re tread place ...you can find it fro about 100 and i bought the cafeteria trays in metal and plastic from ebay... great way to to store work in progress...

newly returned home am so grateful for putting all thoughts in plastic baggies.... works in progess even if only ideas in baggies with the beads group or with beads findings and leather/wire/cord..... i thank me for it... though some of the groups no longer make sense or work for me, i've had a ball opening these treasure and regrouping some stuff and even finishing a couple.....

so baggies are among my best friends as well as the min metal clips so tiny things, baggied are grouped togather... all the sterling silver stuff together,

my big fiber stash is not yet seen but i know i group stuff by color in clear plastic bags.

Akua

[cheryl]

Baggies ... what a great idea. I could hang baggies along the wall or under the table. Hmm.

[~RE Ausetkmt]

Akua
I have so many baggies of different this and that;
gosh we should start an exchange and just throw them into a box
nothingness style.

hey you still working with dryer lint ?

[cheryl]

Storage ideas ... I was thinking of buying a piece of wood for a worktable top and cheap/used short bookcases for its legs. The bookcases for things I need to reach w/o having to get up all the time like beads and such. I did think of putting the bookcases under my desk, but I find the desk to be slightly too high for crafting. I'd also thought of getting tall bookcases or cabinets to place on either side of my bed (facing outward), and buying a cut of wood to lay across the top, over my head. Over the lower part of my bed wouldn't be practical, as they'd be in the way. I'd store those craft things I need but don't have to have on hand all the time, as well as long-term craft supplies and tools, like that portable quilting frame that's been leaning up against the wall for a couple years now. You can see it's in a white box beside my little crafting table.

I have a dresser that used to be in my kitchen with those plastic containers on top of it. I moved the dresser to my room and had my TV on it for a while (don't have cable, but I use DVDs). I'm rearranging so it might go back downstairs now that I've committed to making the kitchen the studio. Or I'll use my son's dresser since he's no longer living here (he's moved to work in Toronto). Even when he was here, he hardly used it anyway.

I like the idea of using large corner shelves. Good use of otherwise wasted space, imo. Good for drying things, since they're out of the way, not so readily knocked over and whatnot.

And what about those closet arrangement shelves? the wire or wooden ones? Maybe a closet could be used just for that.

I dry my tree ornaments on a foldable clothes-drying rack. Sometimes it ends up being short-term storage for them too.

If the items are light, perhaps ceiling hooks to hang those fabric shelves would be useful. You know, the shoe shelves one hangs in a closet, or those shelves made out of tough canvas (or whatever) for clothes ... if ceiling beams can hang heavy plants, surely it's safe enough for some crafts?

[~RE Ausetkmt]

Yeah, my first worktable was a piece of 3ply thick plywood.
worked great. I stacked it on 2 drawer file cabinets on dolly's
just like Akua mentioned above.
when I changed rooms around in the move;
I moved it to become the library desk. it now
holds two computers in my library; where my husband works.

wish I had the ability to hang stuff from the ceiling -
but that's not possible. the closet is great storage.
it runs from one wall to the other one - about 15 feet long.

I've got one of those dryer racks that I put paper and
fabric crafts on to dry. mostly it stays in the box - in
the closet. I have so much stuff that you couldn't believe it.
at least 15 boxes are in the basement waiting to come back upstairs.
sheesh..

Help Y'all - I Need some Guerilla Storage Ideas Quick