Where I Come Clean

I really prefer to fill this blog with all the things in my life that are pretty, beautiful, fun, colorful, meaningful, etc. My better judgment tells me that I should keep the messy parts far away from the blogosphere. That being said, I love a good before and after series of photos. So here they are; the studio before set. These six photos show exactly what the studio looks like today with all of its glorious imperfections. This photo above seems as good a place to start as any. This table is meant to be a work surface, not a catch all for shipping materials, junk mail, magazines and catalogs. Stuff piles up so fast. My plan for this area is to regain control of my work surface.

Don't worry, I'm not losing the tv. I love to hand stitch while listening to Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy in the background. I am aware that the last sentence ages me beyond my years and I am good with that.

This is where I do the majority of my work: blogging, email, research, design, etc, and look at it!! I want to take the shelf down and create a more streamlined and functional storage solution. I would also love to create a sort of inspiration board, that I can change out time and again with whatever strikes my fancy. Also, I am going to paint, I can not wait to paint. Look at that empty white wall on the left, ugh.

Again, with the shelf — gone. This is Ryan's desk and old computer that he rarely uses anymore. It will be leaving this room very soon. We're transferring the data and getting rid of it. Of course we are keeping the black apple print. I might keep the desk though if I can figure out a better way to organize the whole room that makes sense. Right now everything has been sort of placed in here without a lot of thought involved.

This photo really captures one of the most unfortunate qualities of this room. Though, I am completely thrilled with the huge walk in closet, the closet door opens outward into the room and in front of the only window.Right now, nothing can be in front of the window because of the closet door. Presto, change-o, I'm taking the door off. We don't need it. It's moving to the garage. Another source of frustration: the fabric drawers on the left. I need to be able to see what I have and those cheap-y drawers aren't cutting it. I want to put up some shelving or a bookcase or something so I can organize the fabrics by color and make some sense out of that whole sitch. Oh, and if that weren't enough, there's more. See the box on top of the fabric drawers, that is full of all of my notions, they are all just sort of thrown in there very haphazard like. Notions will be coming out of the box and onto the new uncluttered work surface. The top of the box serves as a makeshift present wrapping station - what? I know, crazy. Again, I need the clean and organized work surface.

This final little bit is the inside of the closet. The studio is actually the largest bedroom in the apartment, so the bedroom that we sleep in is quite small. To save space in there, we keep the dresser in the closet in the studio. It's not the best situation, but it helps keep the bedroom unencumbered. I want to rethink the bedroom layout and see if maybe, just maybe, we can get the dresser to fit in there. It would certainly help free up some valuable space in the closet. By the way, look at the shelf, oh man, I have certainly got my work cut out for me.

So there you have it, a little run down of my very messy and unorganized studio. I can only do this because it will make the after photos that much more dramatic and who doesn't love a little drama. Happy Saturday, everyone!