Setting up my studio in our new home got me thinking about the other creative spaces I’ve had. For your basic rectangle in the basement, it is surprisingly different from all my other spaces.
My new studio, will be my fourth dedicated creative space. The first one came about when I commandeered a craft table in our finished basement that the kids just weren’t using. (They preferred to be crafty at the coffee table in front of the tv or upstairs in the kitchen with me.) I bought a cheap set of base cabinets from Home Depot, added another folding table, and filled the wall shelves with plastic containers. I had a pretty great corner.

The walls were painted a soft blue, and the light was not ideal. I only had a tiny casement window. But it was so wonderful to have my own space! And at the time I was only working in polymer clay and doing a bit of bead stringing.

Studio #2: The house we moved to in New Jersey had a perfect 9″ X 13″ room in the finished basement that the previous owners had used as an exercise area. We replaced the carpet with VCT and painted the walls bright white and the trim a bright blue. You can see in the picture that I had two casement windows this time. The ceilings were also quite high and the bright white walls made the space see bright and airy.

My craft book collection was in its early stages and fit into a large Ikea Expedit bookcase with room to spare.

That bookcase, while lovely was not as sturdy as the Ikea Billy bookcases I use now, and its large size meant we had to sell it with the house when we moved back to Connecticut.
Studio #3, my last studio, we built from scratch. We had the basement finished as soon as we moved in and it was a fantastic large space. It did not have any natural light, but it did have a sink! It really was a lot more space than I needed but I my beading had expanded and I had started working in metal as well.

I had my main work area in a corner just as you entered the main part of the studio.

My bench sat in the opposite corner.

I had a spot for soldering, and a handy closet as well. The rainbow doors were a fun project.


The stairs down to the basement turned and made a perfect corner for a photo tent.

And my craft book and magazine collection grew.

I have really been fortunate to have some great creative spaces.
So, my new studio has a full size window (no view as it is a window well, but some lovely light) and a sink, but it is much smaller than the last studio and it does not have any closets. The switch is proving a bit challenging, but I think ultimately the space will be just right. I’ll share pictures in a day or two.