Studio tour

I'd like to welcome you into what is my studio space at the moment!  Before we moved, I had a bedroom to house all my things, however when trying to squeeze a family of four into (effectively) a 2 bedroom house I don't have that luxury. 

For those who aren't aware, we are temporarily living at my Dad's house after our big, crazy move of quitting our jobs and moving towns.  My Dad is travelling around for work so it suits us both that we are able to "house-sit" for him over the next few months.  So we are here until we find a house to call our own...

Let's begin the tour!

My Dad's house is what you would call a "work in progress"....  he's been slowly renovating it over the last couple of years and now most of it is done, except for the kitchen/dining.  The kitchen is half done, it has some new cupboards and Miele appliances, but also unfinished floorboards and dodgy benches.  You can see some of the dodginess at the top of the stairs.  My studio area will end up being the dining area.

So for now, I am sharing a room with the laundry... there is a garage being built on the outside of this wall, which is why it isn't lined properly - there will be a door going in there somewhere.  We've also tried to cram as much furniture in there as we were running out of room in the shed.

 

 This area is mainly for storage... all of my paints are in the cane baskets up top where the kids can't reach.  I started out with just one basket and it's grown to three.  One is totally devoted to Matisse Derivan Structure, another for Matisse Derivan Flow and the bigger basket is assorted (although I plan on phasing out the "assorted").

 I've hung my finished paintings up on the wall to save on storage space - they also look pretty.  :)

 Blank canvases waiting to be worked on....  the bottom basket has all my stencils and some larger stamps.

 This is my actual work area.... ignore all the boxes.  LOL  It's a table that my brother salvaged from somewhere and painted, and it totally wobbles.

 The upside to having the dryer down here - when it's cold, I wash a load of towels and then stick them in there to dry.  Warms up the room nicely.  :)  You can see the back door to the left of this picture - one of the trickiest parts is the fact that I can't close off my area, so I've had to try and store everything up as high as possible to keep it out of the kid's reach.

A closer up shot of all my inks, mediums, books and other items.

So that is my studio for the moment....  it's crowded and messy but it works.  I can't wait until we buy our own house again, one of the requirements is that it has a big area which I can solely dedicate to being a studio.  Lucky for us, there seems to be a lot of houses around here with detatched studios so I'm sure I'll find the perfect one!

So do you have any photos of your "creative area" to share?  Any favourite storage tips?  Leave me a link in the comments.  :)