Let’s be honest. Most of us crafters don’t revel in the luxury of having a room of our own. Some of us live in studio apartments and turn a small closet into our entire creative hub. Others live in four-bedroom houses that we share with our husbands, children, and pets, and clean the dining room table every night to make our products. It’s all we can do to find a place to settle in and feel comfortable enough for our creativity to flow. When I first started, I started beading on my couch. Beads were rolling off my pad and into the cracks, and I didn’t even have a semblance of organization in place. I was putting my beads in the bags that came from the store where I bought them, haphazardly and in no particular order. It was irritating!
It goes without saying that using a small area for so many purposes is almost impossible without having an organization system in place. As I dream of having a room dedicated to my trade, with a separate area for each of the functions I have to perform and reels of wire and chain within easy reach, I have to face facts. I don’t have this room. In the famous words of Tim Gunn (Project Runway, yes I’m addicted) I had to “Make it work!”
My determination to “Make It Work” was something I arrived at when I made the decision to turn my creative hobby into a business. I knew I couldn’t make myself uncomfortable on the couch anymore if I really wanted to succeed. This is what I have done with a small (and very versatile) area of the two-bedroom apartment that my husband and I rent.
We have the luxury of having a solarium on our floor with windows facing north, west and south. The room is filled with beautiful natural light and is the perfect space to create and photograph my jewelry.
Being so spacious and well lit, I decided to set up my home studio here. I had previously bought a small desk from Ikea for the sole purpose of having my own space to do homework (again, instead of the famous sofa!) I use this inexpensive desk a lot. Bill pay, beading and wiring, a staging area for my product photography, photo editing, laptop work, and preparing packages for the mail.
I also have a printer and some small files next to the desk, I use the small drawer to store my business cards and misc. and make good use of the lower cubby to store my printer paper and finished product.
Fortunately, jewelry is small, so my finished product currently stores nicely in a small shoebox-sized bag I bought, in little Ziploc-style baggies for safe keeping.
Our sun room is also the main room on our floor for entertaining and watching movies. Therefore, we have a TV and media center in the room. I quickly got hold of this particularly roomy cabinet and now use it for all my storage purposes. I use the lower left area to store my beads, tools, wire, stationery, and cards. For the beads and the tools themselves, I have several cases that I keep them in nice and neat, a huge improvement over constantly digging stuff in and out of a paper bag to find what I’m looking for.
The right side is dedicated to my photography props, bubble mailers, jewelry boxes, and a bag full of sundries like ribbons and jewelry hang tags. I also have some display items for craft displays tucked away in the background.
Don’t be fooled by my photos, my area is often a jumble of paperwork all over my desk, half-finished projects, and errant accounts I’ve put aside. However, my little space of organized chaos is serving me well in keeping me fresh and creative. From what I’ve done with this little space, I’ve learned a few things. Here are my top five tips for organizing a creative space for yourself at home.
1) Organize, organize, organize. Invest in some organization system, whether it be bags, storage bins, a closet system, etc. Ikea has many wonderful and inexpensive options for storage and I highly recommend organizing your items as much as possible.
2) Keep clean. When I want to go from creating pieces to photographing them, I put all my beads and tools away before taking out any of my photo props and supplies. Doing this instantly transforms the space into an area dedicated to the task at hand. You don’t want to be tripping over your beads or confined to a very small area to work. On the contrary, I clear all the papers and junk from my desk before doing my accounts. I want to spread out as much as possible. Trust me, dedicating the space to what you are doing by keeping it clean will help you not only in your creative process, but also mentally. I feel annoyed and annoyed when there is too much junk lying around. Clears the mind, to say the least.
3) In the organization system you choose, keep dedicated items far apart. Have a place for photography props, another place to store mailing items, another place for your inventory of creative supplies. This really helps with timing, you know exactly where to go and what to grab when everything is in order.
4) Good lighting. Make sure you have the best possible lighting in your space. If you don’t have good natural light, invest in some full spectrum bulbs or some special craft lighting (Ott lights are highly recommended). rosary beads. Turns out some beads were pink and some were peach. It was a disaster. Damn that couch situation! Get yourself the right lighting, you won’t regret it.
5) Enjoy! There is nothing more satisfying than claiming your own space for your craft. You deserve it and it will be key to keeping you happy and stress free. When doing beads on the couch and coming out of a paper bag, I would often find myself avoiding the act of creating because it was such a hassle and I would get completely stressed out with the beads rolling all over me. I also made more mistakes and created items too slowly due to the environment. You owe it to yourself, even if your family has to dine on the living room floor because you took over the dining room table permanently. Take something for yourself, don’t feel guilty and enjoy it fully!
