She Sure is {Organized} - A Guest Blog Post of Magical Proportions

I'm baaack!! Remember me? It's Ashley! I was a guest blogger here about two months ago blogging about keeping your art space organized. 

I first want to start off by thanking you all for the amazing comments and inspiring links. There were so many wonderful ideas and I'm so glad that many of you shared with us! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Okay, so you are probably wondering why I am back? Well, do you remember this video Amber posted showing off her fabulous art studio:

Amber challenged me to come organize it for her and I am here to tell you: CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! And of course we wanted to share the transformation with you! Here is my version of Extreme Makeover: Amber's Art Studio Edition.

My first task was to get a list of everything that Amber wanted in her new studio. I told her to make a list as if money were no object. I truly wanted to know exactly what she wanted to get out of her space.

Here was her wish list:

• Pegboards with buckets 
• Re-purposed dresser for storage  
• A baker's rack to hold her large paper (as seen in my previous blog)
• A classy shoe rack that could go at the end of her work table  
• Clipboards to hang in-progress children's books on or other sketch ideas. That way she can just grab one on her way out the door this summer  
• Place to hold her paper towels and freezer paper  
• Shallow shelf for children's books  
• Something to house "paper and tools, paper and tools"- since that is the majority of materials that she uses.  Plus she also does her make-up in the studio so that area needed to be added as well. She needed room for it all! 

I looked at her list and made an estimate that it would cost about $280 (NOT including the dresser). For those of you who don't know me, I am a bargain hunter. So let it be known that I was able to get everything but the shelf, bakers rack, and dresser for only $120!

Here is a list of the supplies I bought:

Pegboard

Buckets (12)

Ribbon

Spray paint

Clipboard (4)

Towel rods (2)

Paper towel holder (1)

Shoe rack

Banker boxes (for storage, they are cheap and can be decorated with wrapping paper because they are not the nicest things to look at. And they are cheaper than plain white storage boxes)

Screws and wall anchors (for pegboard and hanging items)

This past weekend I drove up to NYC, power tools in hand, and organized her office. Now let's take a look at some of the pictures and I will walk you through how I did it.

The pegboard was normal white. We couldn't have that. So I bought some iridescent spray paint and made it a little more interesting. 

Before:

 After:

Alright,  here is a before collage of what Amber's studio was looking like when I first came over. 

A little intimidating, right? In a nutshell, she had a lot of stuff and nothing really had a home. She felt overwhelmed. First things first, we took everything out. Gutted it. Then we cleaned it (wiped down counter-tops and floors). It's always good to start off with a clean, empty room. I knew she was super excited about the pegboard so I put that up first to keep the morale up. She snapped this shot as I was drilling a large hole in her wall:

Here is the end product:

This is a 2 x 4 peg-board from Home Depot for only $8! If you are wanting to try this at home, make sure to buy hooks to hang your items on. I would buy a multi-pack, they are the best! Here is an example from Amazon: Multi-pack.  The most important thing you need to make sure it comes with is spacers. The pegboard cannot be attached directly to the wall because then you cannot hang your hooks on the board. So buy the spacers! It is super easy!

Luckily, with Easter around the corner, it was really easy to find these buckets. This tin one (shown below)actually had terrible ribbon on it so we switched it out to match the color in Amber's studio.

We kept finding scissors with every new drawer that was cleaned out!
Now there was a place for them :)

Go ahead, Pin it! You know you want to!

Here is Amber's clipboard idea come to life. I bought clear ones so that she could decorate them in whatever pattern/paper she would like. I am excited to see how they turn out!

Another small project involved these towel rods:

We attached them under her desk and voila, there were her paper towel and freezer paper holders! Out of the way yet easily accessible!

After we put up the peg-board, clipboards, and towel rods, we had the tough task of going through everything we took out of the office and finding a place for it.  Here are some amazing before and after pictures:

This is where she kept all of her makeup! On her scanner!

So what did we do with everything? I had Amber go through nearly every shred of paper in that office. It was her choice to keep, scan or throw away. The scan option was swell, because she uses something called Evernote that lets her easily scan documents into her computer. Then she can throw the paper away, thus eliminating most of the papers that were cluttering her office. Once most of the paper was gone, we organized the rest into these storage cabinets below. We had a craft cabinet, project cabinet, card drawer and paper shelf. Once everything was grouped into their categories, putting things away got a heck of a lot easier.

We used the "shoe rack" as her make-up holder by the mirror. We knew she wouldn't be doing her makeup anywhere else in the apartment so we had to make room for it in the studio. If it were anyone else (not living in NYC) I would tell them to move it to the bathroom. But when you have limited space (and natural light) you have to get creative. And that's what we did.

We did it! See, it wasn't so scary! The hardest part is getting started, but once you do, you will be so happy that you did. Here is a message Amber left on my Facebook wall the day after I left:

"Leaving my brand new office was practically torture. I'm pretty sure there are my fingernail prints trailing from the office door all the way to the subway station from dragging myself away this morning. I cannot wait to make home and make new art."

This is why I love organizing. :) 

She Sure is {Getting Organized}

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 Here's Ashley:
 Disclaimer: When lovely Amber asked me to be a guest writer on her blog, I immediately said yes, and I started brainstorming (after I stopped screaming on the inside, of course) all the wonderful organizational ideas I could share with fellow artists. Then it hit me. I am only an artist on my free time. I don't practice my skills on a full-time basis like most of you do! So, aside from now knowing how entirely inadequate I feel, you will also realize that my tips/how I run things may not work for you since I am a twice-a-month artist. But that's okay. I will share tips on how to make it all your own. And that's what being an artist is all about right? Making it your own. So without further ado, here is:

 

Ashley's Guide on How to Get Your Craft* Room Organized

(*use whatever word you want here that best describes your setup: photo, painting, scrapbooking, shrine-to-ryan-gosling…)

1. Don't be that girl.

We've all seen her. Flipping through the latest issue of Martha Stewart and there is an article about a successful business woman who has six kids, cooks a homemade, gluten-free meal every night, keeps a journal AND manages to scrapbook. And did we forget to mention her craft room looks like this all the time:

Yeah-freaking-right. This is so unrealistic (at least for any artist I know). For starters, they don't sell paint like that. You would have to buy those bottles, pour your paint in them and keep doing that for years. And what if you buy  more paint colors? Your shelves wouldn't hold it, that's what. I could go on, but I won't. You get my point. Just don't be that girl.

2. Find YOUR needs:

You will find many organizing ideas on the internet but you need to find things that meet your needs. Having storage for paintbrushes won't help if you are a photographer. So don't be afraid to get specific with your needs. Or get creative with ideas and make them into what YOU need them for.

I use a lot of paper for making cards, mixed media and scrapbooking projects. I LOVE the idea of having baskets with paper products in them. Mainly because I have to hide the madness that is my paper stash. No matter how many times I organize it, it still ends up looking like a paper monster threw up .  So I fix that problem by storing my paper in baskets. Here is a large scale example of what I am talking about:

Beautiful. Organized and hides the mess that could be behind those wicker walls. I am also in love with the baker's rack they used on the left for specialty paper.

3. Get things off of your desk

If you are like most artists I know, you need more space on your desk. "But I need all these pens/scissors/paper/paints  here though"- you say. Well, you probably have a wall, so hang 'em up!

Pegboard + buckets = genius! You could have a whole wall of art supplies that are easily accessible leaving your entire desk empty all for you. This is one of my favorite ideas for sure.

4. Label

I like to label things. That way I feel like I know where things are and I know where they go. Either use a label maker (I have a Brother P-touch, and I love it), print off labels from your computer and laminate them or good ol' post its work too. Labeling at its best:

My only argument is that the storage is wire so why would you have any trouble seeing what color it is? But you get my point: labeling is fun to do, fun to do.

5. Don't be afraid to keep out what you use most (just keep it tidy!)

You use it all the time don't you? So why should you have to put it in a drawer? I don't care what your mom used to tell you, leave it out! But maybe in a more neat way, like this:

If you are constantly cutting and writing there is no reason you should be putting it away just to take it out again. Find a caddy that will fit all of your go-to items and viola! You have more room on your desk!

6. Get creative! (I shouldn't have to tell you twice)

I like using odd things as storage. We got this weird box from somewhere and it was just long enough for my paintbrushes so that is what I used it for. Don't be afraid to use random things to keep organized. I used an empty Swiffer wet wipe box for my colored pencils. The top is clear so you can see what is in it. It is perfect. So don't feel as if you need to buy the expensive Tupperware that was "meant" for your specific art supplies. Get creative!

Another example: I would take my dad's old cigar boxes to house my charcoal pencils (cause those things can get pretty messy).

Alright, let's get to the nitty gritty: You want to know what my craft room looks like don't you? Yes, I am that self-centered to think you care. 

Okay, here is the thing: I don't have a craft room (why did I get asked to write this blog again?!) We have a three bedroom townhouse. The rooms are set up like this:

Master Bedroom- Me and my husband

Bedroom #2 - My sister's room

Bedroom #3- My husband's "office" (read: where he plays video games)

So I do all of my art related things in the master bedroom. It is spacious enough for me to be able to do that but it also forces me to be tidy. Downfall: our two kitties are allowed in there so I can't leave paint supplies out or there would be colored paws on our carpet. Here is a picture of it (click to enlarge):

My desk and cube wall is from Ikea. They always have amazing storage/organizational ideas.

Now there isn't enough space for all of my art supplies so I use a dresser (off camera to the right of the desk area) as storage. It's like my dresser is a double agent. A dresser in a bedroom? It must hold clothes, right? WRONG! It has all my supplies in it! Unassuming dresser:

Let's take a look inside those drawers. First one has some tools, spray for charcoal drawings as well as some materials I might use some day (broken glass and glass squares):

Then we have some blank canvas, paint and glue in the next drawer. I would love to keep my paints organized and well displayed but it is just not realistic. So they are in a photo box. And I am fine with it. I swear.

In the next drawer I keep a mix of things like envelopes, sketch pads, coloring books, greeting cards and a mix of little things that came from previous projects.

If you have collected quite a few of little items and need storage for them, use a desk drawer organizer like I did below. It keeps everything separate but still easy to get to.

Last drawer: markers, pastels, charcoal, and shoe boxes with more supplies

The best part of my dresser-o-supplies? I can close all of the drawers and the mess is gone.

So thats it. Pretty simple when it is written down huh? So here is my challenge to you. Send us (yes I pretend that I am part of the awesomeness that is She Sure is Sketchy now) a video or pictures of your craft/ art area and tell us how you organize it. Or if it is a complete wreck (we won't judge), we challenge you to take before and after pictures of it and get organized for the new year! Come on! Everyone's doing it...