Studio Storage.....

"In successful organization, no detail is too small to escape close attention."

~Lou Holtz~

If you did not get chance to visit the Where Bloggers Create Blog Party you really should. Just scroll down Karen's sidebar and click away! Wow, talk about an abundance of ideas and creativity! I am still visiting all the links and have only gotten through the M's so far. I found several new blogs to explore and will be sharing those links with you in a later post as well as tons of ideas and inspiration.

Thank you all so much for the sweet comments on my studio space. I really appreciate all the bloggy love! I have to confess that I was really really nervous to share it. After seeing Sunday Hendrickson's studio in Volume 2 of Where Women Create I felt better about showing it. I don't have one of those wildly eclectic spaces. I am more of a matchy matchy type of gal and I like my clutter to be very organized. Sunday's studio shares the color combo of blue and green just like mine and her space is so organized! She even has cozies and covers over her printer, fax machine, and file cabinets, my kind of gal! Anyway, hats off to Sunday for giving me the courage to share my studio. You can see some peeks of her home and studio here in this post at Chez Fifi (blog home page).

I had some specific questions about my studio space and storage solutions so I thought I might share that with you. The room measures 11' 4" by 10' 4", plus I have closet space that is 5' by 2'. I have room for three people to work comfortably if I remove my portable sewing machine from its table. The color of my space is Midsummer's Dream by Olympic that I purchased at Lowe's. The color was chosen to match the small blue flower in the print on the vintage drapes that serves as closet doors and the blue stripe on the fabric of my inspiration board. I removed the bi~fold closet doors to have room for cabinetry. I accented with hits of the acidic green.My window treatments are white linen fabric that I got on clearance hemmed on all four sides. I used blue and green satin ribbon to create a stripe on the panels to mimic the stripe on the fabric by ironing the ribbon on with fusible tape. I used silver grommets across the top of each panel. The hooks are actually shower curtain hooks that I found at a flea market for a $1.00. I drilled a hole in them, turned them upside down, and attached them to the wall with silver screws to install the panels on.I adore all those spaces out there created with fun furniture finds but I am a use what you have or what you have access to kind of girl and I had access to all the cabinetry in my space for the just right price of free! Well, not exactly free, Handy Hubby got them on the barter system. He helped a guy in the cabinet business install a fence and the guy gave him the cabinets in trade for his labor. The three that look like cupboards are actually two wall cabinets stacked on top of each other. To have a little fun rotating display space I took the doors off on one set and added fabric backing.Yes, nearly every container in my space is labeled. This is not so much for my benefit but for those who come over to play, they can easily find any extra supplies they might need without me having to direct them. Handy Hubby and Darling Daughter frequent the space too, as does my son, to filch art supplies for his art classes. They can find, borrow, and put away what they need.

The holders for my paint brushes, colored pencils, and gel pens are actually candle holders that I found at Big Lots on clearance. I really love the open cut work design and that they have a wide opening to hold a lot of items.The rack holding my glitter and a few of my glues is an old spice rack that I spray painted white. I found the bottles I am using separate. They were old flavoring bottles. I think the lids soaked up the flavoring because whenever I use them I get whiffs of butter rum, vanilla, mint etc. I need to find a few more spice bottles for the glitter overflow that I have stashed in a drawer. These racks are also perfect for storing small bottles of acrylic paint. If you decide to use this for your storage, make sure your paints or bottles fit the rack. I took an empty bottle and a paint bottle with me flea marketing while searching for mine to make sure they fit.I find some things hard to store, stickers and rub-ons are one of those things. I have looked at several options and didn't like those pocket binder things as your sticker pages have to be specific sizes to fit them, so I came up with a simple solution that works for me. I purchased two expandable file folders in a sturdy material, standard file folders, and 12"x12" scrapbook paper.To cover the folder I placed a piece of waxed paper inside the folder and sprayed the front of the folder with spray glue and then put the decorative paper on top of the folder, smoothed in place, and removed the waxed paper. I trimmed off the excess paper around the folders curved edge. I mix matched my papers and used the cut off piece to glue to the inside top back of the folder, spraying the back of the paper with glue, smoothing in place and trimming off the excess. Once all the folders were covered I had them laminated, I knew they would last longer from frequent use, and then used my label maker to label them.For general stickers I made categories of: Borders & Corners, Misc. Stickers, Nature, Spring & Summer, Autumn & Winter, Travel, & Vintage. These work for the types of stickers I like to use. For alphabet stickers I used the same folder technique with labels of: Pastel, Primary, Neutral, Black, Silver & Gold, Glitter, and Quotes & Words. I put all the sheets of that type in the folder and then placed the folders in alphabetical order in the expandable file. When I need a certain type I can easily pull out the file, flip through and find what I need without digging through them like I used to.

These two files as well as one smaller one that I have for small color coded paper scraps sit nicely on the closet shelf within handy reach when I need them.I usually have several projects going at once and needed a place to keep all the works in progress without having piles on every surface. Sometimes I am collecting for a project and also need storage until I have all the pieces I need on hand. Under my counter in the knee hole I had Handy Hubby add a shelf on both sides. My side holds a large wire basket that can store all my pending projects. I still need to sew a basket liner for it so small bits don't fall through. Right now it has six works in progress hiding under there.I have room to grow into this space since I edited my supplies to just the things that appeal to my style of creating. Since paper is a huge part of my crafting it is easier to store than most bulky supplies. I have acid free archival boxes with dividers in them for types of vintage ephemera like old photos, post cards, greeting cards, and small papers to use in collage. These are the boxes on the rolling cart that I am still working on getting the painted designs on. I plan to add three green boxes from the container store as soon as the size I need goes on sale. That will give me 13 boxes to store stuff in a small portable area of space.My drawers have inexpensive plastic baskets or liners to contain the tools I use frequently.I have previously shown you how I stash my scissors and how I use up card stock scraps as blank tags as well as how I store them here.To determine what I needed as far as storage goes, after culling all my supplies I laid them out in piles of groupings of alike things. I could then see how much of each type of item I had and how much storage I needed for each group. This helped me to decide on what type of containers I needed. I also did some careful measuring of shelves and cabinets so whatever I chose would fit.I mostly use inexpensive clear shoe boxes from Dollar General, they cost $l.50 each or divided storage containers so I can see my stuff. I love these little individual containers that fit into one acrylic box. The box holds 24 pop top containers and takes up a small amount of space to store. I got these at Hobby Lobby. They run about $5.00 each but I used the 40% off coupon to purchase mine.I also like these standard divided plastic containers for embroidery floss, beads, jewelry or misc. embellishments that I use in my art. These usually run around $5.00 each. I also used the 40% off Hobby Lobby coupon for these.I use three sizes of plastic drawer storage for holding paper, tools, and supplies. These are Sterilite brand and I purchased them at Wal-Mart. They run from about $5.00 up to $12.00 per container.Two things I would like to have is more actual wall space to hang pretty things on but I needed storage worse and different flooring. Since this was a guestroom it has carpet. I have to be patient until it is time to finish the hardwood flooring in the main living space of the house and then we can run it right down the hall into this room too. I have area rugs under the work spaces and if I am painting I throw down a tarp. Other than that I am happy with the space.

One very important thing to keep in mind is that a creative space is not born over night. I have been in this space for two years and it is just finding its way into order. It took me six months just to edit and figure out what I really used, needed, and could not do without to get it all down to manageable. I purchased containers a little bit at a time until I had all I needed for my supplies, until then everything lived in plastic zip bags. Take your time, assess your needs, and then make your purchases as budget allows.

Blessings,
Miss Sandy

P.S. I will be out of pocket most of the week this week. I will pop in and post if I get the chance. Handy Hubby is off this week and today we started working on the house to get it ready for its face lift! Until then, have a great week!