Easy Tips to Organize your Studio Space

When we moved from Maine to Vermont and rented a house I was faced with creating studio space to work in. The house has a 20X27 great room off the kitchen and what used to be the living room in front of the house.

We decided that the old living should be my studio due to the size and amount of natural light it has with the 2 good size windows. In the center of one wall there are shelves, although they are very shallow. In my house in Maine I used cork boards with all my gems and pearls and that worked very well. I have my seed beads in tubes in tin cans (I like to re-use when possible) and I liked that as well. I have them separated into colors and sizes. In a rental house I had to be careful with anything I did, making sure I could restore it when we leave. I also wanted to be able to hide the shelves and corkboards as it is the first room you come into.



The narrow shelves turned out to be perfect to line up my seed beads on and made it easy to separate them by size with the #15’s on one shelf, #11’s on the next, and so on. I hung my corkboards on either side of the shelves. I wanted to be able to hide that whole set up and protect the gems, beads form light as well. I went out and bought a large curtain rod and panels of curtains. Blue is not the color I would have chosen, but I had to work with the wallpaper that is already there because, like I said it is a rental. The white panels were to sheer.



For my workspace I had some challenges. In Maine my husband built me a table that I could use as a sit/stand and I have a drafting chair that was perfect. The thing about those chairs though is that they do not go low enough for a normal table height, missing by just a couple of inches. I had (2) 7 foot tables but they were too low to work one for hours at a time. To remedy this we went out and purchased some beautiful Birch plywood and I arranged the tables in a “U” shape. This enables me to have my computer nearby, my workspace in front of the window and my light tent just to the right of my workspace.

I purchased a bookcase and have all my crochet/knitting books, beading books and some other storage space. In the closet are my tubs full of yarn, my gift boxes and other miscellaneous items.

Under one table I have my shredder, file cabinet, storage for completed pieces and other supplies that I use often. A smaller bookcase at the end of that table houses tubs (plastic salad containers) full of other supplies such as lampwork, acrylic flowers and leaves, Swarovski crystals and pearls, etc…

On the table to my right I have my light tent, shipping station, paper cutter and other larger tools I use often. I do have some plants around just to keep things fresh and like I said there are 2 good size windows for sunlight and scenery.



I will be happy when the house in Maine sells and we can look into buying a home in Vermont. For now though, this works great and I did not change anything making it very easy to move it all without having to do any repairs to the rental.

Meanwhile, come hang out with me at Divella Delights!