New Art Studio!

Hooray! Here is the before photo of my in-home mixed media studio:

Sitting desks be gone! Here is the after:

I am SO HAPPY with this arrangement!

My husband and I searched for the appropriate height measurements based off my my height for the computer station.. and for the lower desk where I paint, I lowered the surface a few inches because my painting posture is different than my typing/working posture. I added a wider shelf across the top of the painting desk which I intended to hold only art...but I did not like the feeling of my most commonly used paint tucked away. I purchased a second Raskog cart from Ikea (those are so cheap and great..really solid!) to hold my heavy body, high flow and OPEN paint..and there are a ton of mediums stored in the closet off-camera. The stools are cheap and cheerful from Target (they arrived in 2 days!) and for the purpose of sitting only some of the time, they are great. If paint gets on them, it's a-okay.

The most difficult part of this standing-desk project was sanding all of the paint off the existing table tops.. there were three layers of paint on there (the tables have been in use since 2008 (I should have keep the wood natural). You can google all kinds of tutorials on how to make standing work stations...and we did not follow any one plan specifically... and there were some changes made along the way.. For a small space, take into consideration anything you store under your table. Cross-pipes can interfere with your storage space. For example, most of the plans we read online called for a low cross beam, which would not allow me to roll my Raskog carts under the tables- they would have stuck out into the room. We raised my cross bars...and then subsequently had to bolt the tables back to the wall for a little extra stability. They are rock solid. (My initial plan was to keep them mobile.)

We completed this project in 2 days.. Home Depot cut the pipe for us to order.. like I said, the bulk of the elbow grease and time was spent sanding. I can't wait to start painting in here....now...where did all of my "free" time go....

(The thumbnail image for this post is a beautiful flower arrangement spotted at Influx cafe this week.)