I recently renovated my workspace at home, and truth be told I have been changing workspaces the last 3 years.
I think one of the best reasons to consider having a workspace for your art is this space will inspire you to create. After many years of not having a space and just thinking I can do it anywhere, anytime, most times it meant not creating. When you don’t have a dedicated place for your art, you end up using another space which can be great, but trust me if you’re inspired to create and you do so on your kitchen or dining room table, eventually life gets in the way.
So if you want to sneak a little creative corner at home, here are 3 tips I have learned along the way that I hope will help you:
1. Define your space
Think about the spaces in your home, maybe you have an unused spare bedroom, or a garage which can be great to go big. But since I live in Spain in a small apartment this was about the question for me. If this is the case for you too, think of corners, rearrange furniture and remember walls are great for setting your tools, it can be a peg board, or shelves, but vertical storage is a great option for limited spaces.
You can be creative and repurpose a closet or install a foldable desk, but know it’s also OK if you can’t fit a table, in some cases still using the dining or kitchen table, but having a dedicated place for all your tools and artworks will make it inviting for you to use them whenever possible. This also brings me to my second tip.
2. Organisation will save you time
As artists we tend to have tons of tools, even as a collage artist I love having different scissors, glues, papers etc. If you don’t have these organized, creating is more complicated since you first have to dedicate time to finding everything. I like to use containers for brushes, pens, markers, pencils and you can also go cheap, one of my favorite containers is reusing any Campbell’s soup can for this.
I also like to keep all my glues, adhesives and scissors together, for this I use my peg board but it can be containers or boxes if this is the case be sure to label them so you can save time later.
I also have two 4 drawer organizers where I like to keep my paper, elements that I use like stickers, plants, etc, I even have there drawer dedicated to packaging for when I sell my artworks. I had space for this, but it can also be a roller cart (Ikea has a cute one) that’s easy to move and has all your tools ready.
One thing that’s important to consider is where you will store your artworks. I like to have big folders to save them, maybe you can fit them into your closet or like me if you store them vertically you can sneak them into a corner.
I also like to have folders for work in progress. Sometimes a project takes more than you like, or you may be working on more than one project at a time, instead of leaving it on a table I like to store these so that my desk is clean and neat and inspires me to create rather than clean hehe.
3. Think about the light
Having proper lighting makes the world of difference, especially for your eyes’ rest. If your workspace can have natural lighting is the best, but you might not be so lucky, or you might be only able to work at night, so the window won’t help much there. So invest in a proper light for your desk. Since I also teach, for me a proper light was necessary and also a support for my phone, after much digging I found a lamp that can do both. But whatever you choose just make sure to have a good lamp.
It also helps if you have your own creations or artworks from an artist you admire as decor to inspire you every time to see it. I hope these tips have been helpful, and please feel free to contact me if you need any tip or have any questions, also if you just want to share with me how your space looks 🙂
ai Llamozas, venezuelan journalist resident in Barcelona since 2008. Creative and collage artist who creates content from her artistic point of view. She shares her passion scissor in hand!
Follow me @iallamozas
