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!

Beading Studio on a Shoestring

I have found a great use for some bulletin boards that were headed for the garbage by a local company. Hardly used but not too pretty they were going to throw them away and replace them with some more modern and attractive models.
I was always digging through bins and drawers to find my pearls and gems and I never really knew what I had or needed. I put the bulletin boards up in my studio and started pinning my treasures in small plastic bags, many of which are the bags they came in. I also have a box for retired bags so I always have plenty on hand. Now in addition to being able to see what I have, I feel much more inspired and I can just go around the room and pick what I want off the board. In addition to that now that those are on the walls I have more space on the shelves.
My seed beads are on shelves by size and color so they are also in plain site.
I use the large plastic salad containers to organize my thread and lightweight stringing material and tin cans to hold tubes of beads, again organized by size and color.
The drawers that used to hold my beads now hold fibers and other stringing materials (mostly for macramé) keeping them safe from the sun and lighting that can fade them.
I hope someday to be able to get some sort of sliding wall to put them on so I can close them when I am not using them to keep them from the light and be a little more attractive but for now this works very well!