Elements

Almost all of the elements of my home studio are complete. It has been a long process, but when you consider that we have done nearly all of the work ourselves, it has moved along at a pretty good pace. We have some minor wall repairs to finish, and putting up the baseboards. Once those tasks are done, I can start moving the furniture back in, and organizing the closet and shelves. I have two guest rooms packed with furniture and materials/supplies that I have collected over many, many years. I have bits and scraps and pieces that date back to my childhood - things I saved because someday I would "do something" with them. But they have always been too buried in other things to find what I am looking for, and I've never had a dedicated area to use as a workspace. I am hoping to be able to post pictures of my finished studio soon, but I thought I would give a sneak peek into the elements I am using in the space. I painted the room Saybrook Sage by Benjamin Moore. We had used the color in the dining room in our first house. In that light, it was a little mintier than I had planned, but it looked good. In the studio, it is the green-grey I wanted. In the closet, I went a little crazy and painted using Benjamin Moore's Blue Lapis. The trim and doors will be painted Cloud White, also by Benjamin Moore. I plan to use this throughout the house, as we continue to update everything. As I have written about before, we have put down slate tile on the floor. Slate is a favorite material of mine, as you can see in my Etsy shop. The sealed tiles will be easily cleaned over years of clay spatter, paint spills, glue glops, etc. And they bring an earthy element that will inspire and ground me.

The main piece of furniture in the room will be this project table. I lusted after this table for a long time, and received it as a gift. It comes in three colors, but I wanted the black version shown below. What drew me to this piece is its functionality. It is counter-height, which is perfect for working while standing or sitting on a stool. As a table there are two sides to work from, rather than a one-sided desk, which means I can have two projects going on, work with someone else, or spread out. I also love the storage shelves on either side. I plan to load them up with aesthetic tools and supplies. The shelves on this table also served as the inspiration for the shelves we built in the room. We built floor-to-ceiling shelves that cover most of the back wall, and they will also be used as part display/part storage. Each shelf is square, creating a grid similar to the grid of shelves on the project table. The square pattern is also subtly echoed in the tile flooring.

I have ordered two of these pendant lights for the room. We will have an electrician come in and install them both above the project table, in the middle of the room. Right now the room is fairly dark, but these will give me 200 watts of lighting that can be raised or lowered depending upon where I need the light. This picture shows both the metal and the ceramic shades; I chose the white ceramic, and in the larger size. I like both finishes, but as I am hoping to use primarily black and white (other than the wall color and the earth tone flooring), I thought the white would fit in better with that theme. Rather than using a lot of colors in the decor, I would rather have my creations and the supplies I use provide the points of interest in the room.