I went to my new studio last weekend (forgot to take a photo, can you believe it?) and it has a roof, is painted on the outside, and even has its own doorbell. How fun is that? We’re about two weeks away from moving in and I realize that I need to finish my space design before it is full of boxes!
My favorite book for studio inspiration has been Inside the Creative Studio: Inspiration and Ideas for your Art and Craft Space by Cate Cioulacos Prato. Greg gave me this book for Christmas and it has been a huge help in making wish lists and designing the floor layout for my new studio.
In addition to the gorgeous photos of studios (or as we call it in our house now, studio eye-candy) this book is full of helpful tips, stories from artists about how they designed and built their studios, and even actual space diagrams. I found the tips from each artist to be especially helpful.
The studio interviews and diagrams are bookended by helpful articles such as “Clutter Out, Creativity In: 10 Steps to a more artful studio” and “For Your Illumination: How to choose the best lighting for your studio” and my favorite, “101 Organization and Storage Tips.”
Since we make artists books and paper is one of our favorite guilty pleasures, here are their 10 Best Solutions for Paper Storage (p. 60)
- Flat file drawers
- Shoe Cubbies
- A pretty (or industrial) trash can (for rolls)
- Umbrella stand (for rolls)
- Large size zipper bags (clip them to cascading skirt/pant hangers)
- Wooden clothes drying rack (for rice and tissue papers)
- Accordion files (Attach a scrap with the color to the front of each slot or write the name of the color with a permanent marker)
- Archival boxes
- Plastic protector sheets (magazine cutouts, paper motifs, small images on found papers)
- Portfolios for extra-large pieces of paper (You can slide the whole thing under the bed.)
Do you have a book that you can recommend? What tools did you use to plan your studio?
~Ginger
Midnight Musings 