I’ve been at it again. Tidying up the studio space and reorganising. Squeezing some more storage in and moving things around so they are easier to find and see.  I seem to do this every few months.

Okay, here is a BEFORE photo of the couch area in the studio - brace yourself:

Left to right, we’ve got cushion inserts waiting for cushion covers to be made for them, brown clothes waiting to be dyed black (I’m so over brown), bags that are waiting to be sent down to Melbourne, and on the arm of the chair - a whole stack of (mostly op shop) clothing waiting to be refashioned or repaired or resized.  Such a poorly used (and abused) space.

I moved the red couch out of the studio entirely and into the family room. The brown couches from the family room will be going to the op shop next week. I set up a little table and bought a new lamp and now I’ve got a nice bright spot to read.

You might notice the white canvases above the couch. We have quite a few empty canvases hung around the house that we are going to paint or collage or something. Of course, we haven’t gotten around to it yet but it’s on The List.

Back to the studio - in the space where the couch was taking up space and collecting mess, I put some new white bookscases. Just cheap melamine but they do the job really well. I was able to grab all my craft books and magazines from their various locations around the studio and put them all in one happy spot. A crafter’s library!  I love it so much!  And there was even room in the bookcase to store a few other things so the whole room is looking better and better.

I didn’t realise I had quite this many books and magazines… Perhaps I have a little problem. Too bad - I don’t think I’m going cold turkey on this one.

Moving the books from other spots in the studio freed up other space which of course, I have expanded into already. Here is the “papercrafting / collage / art” desk BEFORE - if you can look above the mess that totally stops any creative activity, you can see a shelf of books that has been moved now:

And here is the tidy and more organised desk area now:

Bliss! I only hope it stays that way.

And it doesn’t stop there, dear reader. Oh no, I’ve been tidying quite a few problem areas around the house in the last few weeks. I didn’t take a BEFORE shot of the bookcase in my room but just imagine a huge mess of crap and you’ll be halfway there. I took everything off the top of the bookcase, went through it all and chucked most of it. I found thousands of dockets for things I had bought up to a year ago that were just shoved and jammed into little places - why didn’t I just put them into the bin at the time?  There were odd socks and bits of stuff and all kinds of junk stashed there.  Time to go!

I went out and bought some clear acrylic jewellery stands from Howard’s Storage World and gathered a few other pretty things. I went through all my jumbled mess of necklaces and earrings (I found so much old stuff that I would never wear now - hello 1985!) and bought some new makeup (I admit it, I never wear makeup but I thought it might be fun to wear it every so often) and displayed everything beautifully.

The best thing I did to the area was a little wallpapering project. I took some of the vintage wallpaper that I thrifted a while back and did some research online and then just jumped in and tried it! Voila - a beautiful feature wall. A new mirror completed the look and now I have a lovely area to primp and preen.

The wallpaper and bookcase cover up a doorway that we never use and now it looks lovely too! Have you got a spot that really needs some reorganising? Clean it up and rejuvenate the area. You’ll be so glad you tackled it.

Related Posts

• Saturday, April 15, 2006 -- papercrafting area (3)
• Friday, February 24, 2006 -- I tidied up my studio! (5)
• Thursday, February 23, 2006 -- hello again (1)
• Wednesday, January 25, 2006 -- Messy! (5)
• Monday, August 27, 2007 -- Burda 7866 done (4)

tags: after, before, crafty books, crafty magazines, hotspot, organise, organize, studio, tidy, vintage, wallpaper