SaveEmail 15. Jewelry Studio Who: Janet Kofoed Craft: Making jewelry “I’m a jeweler, and my studio is a tiny room on the second floor that was once, I think, a nursery. It’s about 90 square feet, and I have all my benches and equipment shoehorned into it. The saving grace of the space is a small adjoining deck, a good place for product photography or contemplation,” Janet Kofoed writes. Readers Show Us Their Winter Hobbies at Home SaveEmail Here are her tools.
SaveEmail 12. Sewing Room Who: Flourishingpalms Where: The Villages, Florida Hobbies: Quilting and sewing Flourishingpalms outfitted a guest room in her home with everything she needs for quilting and sewing. “I have two sewing machines permanently set up — one for sewing and piecing, the other for quilting — with two flexible tables (varnished hollow-core doors) set upon four adjustable-height Ikea sawhorses,” she writes. She uses the door-tables for ironing, cutting fabric and basting quilts. She added UV film to the south-facing bay window to protect her projects from the Florida sun. Flourishingpalms stores her fabric in a cabinet.
Hobbies: Painting and weaving Mary Pat Dubois lives in a three-story townhome with a storage room on the ground floor, and since she’s purged enough that she doesn’t need it for storage, she converted the room into her creative space. “I surround myself with things that inspire my creativity, and I put on my music and close the door,” she says. She keeps her loom in the room (a portion of it can be seen in the bottom left of the photo above), though on nice days she can fold it up and take it to the backyard deck so she can work out in the sun. Dubois paints in watercolors and acrylics, and has also done some collage work. But her primary focus is weaving. She recently retired early and has taken up weaving again; she plans to sell her woven work online. The wall hanging pictured here is her work.
Tip: Also take a look at the towel hardware in the bathroom section. These can be a practical alternative to a utensil rack, with a little extra depth to accommodate more cumbersome items, such as pots with large handles. If you’re feeling crafty, create your own unconventional utility rack. A cool-looking industrial pipe affixed to the wall with coordinating brackets could work. Or, as shown in this photo, a sturdy branch could add a more organic kitchen detail. Metal S-hooks or J-hooks for your DIY pot rail can be found in most kitchen or hardware sections.
Johnson crafted the 16-foot-long table for McLeod’s art studio. Originally, the splatters were incidental, but now they’ve become something beautiful. He’s coated the table with boat varnish many times to give it a beautiful finish and now uses a drop cloth over it when he’s working. He painted the interior of the cabinet to match the turquoise paint. The concrete walls are practical for dripping paint, while the white tongue-and-groove walls add a crisp, more finished touch. The bench is for holding supplies, and the window over it provides views out to the water.
“The craft room has one of our favorite Ikea hacks to date,” Ronderos says. All of the crafting supplies are concealed behind kitchen cabinets from Ikea, which are paired with a custom wenge wood recess with LED lighting that adds an interesting architectural detail where creations can be displayed. It’s a good example of how these designers play with positive and negative space. On the opposite side of the room, a striped wallpaper from Knoll wraps up and disappears underneath the drop ceiling. The wallpaper is vinyl and very durable. The desktop is Corian, also chosen for its durability.
Store large paper and canvases in a vertical organizer or art portfolio. Oversize paper, poster board, and canvases should be kept where they won’t be bent or otherwise damaged. If you have only a few large pieces, pick up an inexpensive paper art portfolio. If you have a bigger collection, you may want to invest in a large art organizer.
to create visual volume is a series of changes in floor level as the house moves from zone to zone, from front to back through the narrow site. A short flight of wooden steps raises the living zone from the level of the dining and kitchen zones. “It’s the split level of the ’60s and ’70s,” Gibson says. “It makes it feel much more spacious than it would if it was all on the same level.”
Neon pop. A simple space can be made current with just a few additions: a black and white striped rug, stools with neon painted bases and a bold canvas on the wall. If you use your office more for projects than computer work, consider going with a comfy settee instead of a traditional desk chair. Tip: Wish you had a great big piece of art for the wall? If you’re artistic or adventurous, try making your own. Blank, prestretched canvases are available at art stores, and a simple design like the zigzag pattern shown here can be accomplished even by DIY newbies. Go freehand, or for a crisp look, mark out the pattern using painter’s tape before applying color, and let each shade dry before adding the next to avoid smudging. would make for a fab bead or crafts studio
excavated the basement another 2½ feet, ending up with 9-foot ceilings and an inviting lair. BUILT IN BEAD AND CRAFT STORAGE IDEA
This homework station includes workspace essentials (flexible options, great lighting and portable supplies) and helpful extras too. The chalkboard and wall calendar are great for planning, prioritizing and reminding.
cheerful space, even if basement. a crafts table is a great addition to the homework zone for those larger projects, such as science fair boards.
A fabric-covered bulletin board in a pretty frame is an elegant and space-efficient way to store bead strands. For a twist on this idea, try hanging a painted pegboard on the wall. Hang necklaces from pegs or S-hooks, also framed.
inexpensive basement light, bright, easily modifiable
nice client reception lounge area in studio
studio space was once a barn that housed both tractors and hay in the loft when the house was a working farm. Fagella worked with a contractor to design and remodel it into a functional pottery studio. “The studio is a sunny, light-filled workspace, a wonderful place to make my pottery and to teach classes,” she says. “The main floor is where I work and teach pottery classes, and the loft space stores packing materials and my stock of urns for the urn part of my business.”
dyed blue grass cloth wallpaper to add texture. STORAGE. GENEROUS COUNTER WORK SPACE
lampwork studio
lampwork studio
CANVAS STORAGE AND ART STUDIO FOR PAINTING
framed so it can fit neatly across the small window at night.
The upstairs loft includes a home office, a sitting area nestled around a hearth and one of Murray’s two grand pianos. Murray considers music one of life’s chief necessities.
A great stone hearth at the center of the home faces a sitting area. There is also an exterior fireplace on the patio, which shares the same chimney. Beyond the living room is a well-appointed kitchen. The library, living room and kitchen all have French doors that open onto the back patio, overlooking the wetlands below.
A fly system operated with pulleys (upper-right corner in the photo) creates extra drying space for artworks on paper.
fABULOUS LIVE IN STUDIO
immediately I connected with my 14-year-old self,” she says. And being able to play music at whatever volume she likes, staying as long as she wants and having the space to think solely about her craft has really helped her design process, she adds.
moon vases, shown here on a windowsill in her home, are created with this pit fire method and are another of her current projects. “They’re fired for the first time in the kiln, and afterward I wrap them in ferns or bits of hemp and put them in the sawdust fire,” she says. “When the pots come out you never really know what you’re going to get. Each one is individual, because you can’t really replicate them.”
throwing wheel is in front of the large windows so she can look out onto the garden as she works. This is important to her as her pieces are influenced by landscapes and the forms and creations of nature.
“The bright walls and ceilings and the resilient cork floor provide a space that’s easy to work in,” says Mark Landry, of Landmark Services. With the studio at the end of the basement, the client can find solitude when painting, but she’s close enough to the rest of the house that it can be for brief periods of time. Size: 286 square feet Location: Basement corner What it’s used for: Dedicated art studio Studio essentials: Good ventilation, natural light, soft flooring and a sink
A wall of built-in maple shelves, a large workspace and concrete floors give van Adelsberg space to play without requiring her to be tidy. Size: 260 square feet Location: Multiuse studio that’s steps from the main house What it’s used for: Making pottery. It can also be a gallery space or guest suite. Studio essential: Enough room to get messy
This studio might work the hardest, because when Kirsten Dear isn’t painting, it functions as her dining room. She covers the dining table with a plastic tablecloth when painting and stores all of her supplies in the teak sideboard seen here. She stores her paintings in a back room and puts her palette on a shelf in the freezer. Size: Enough space to stand with an easel and a dining table Location: The dining room What it’s used for: Painting Studio essentials: Good lighting, ventilation and music
perfection
Studio Space With Room for a Little of Everything After living in her house for more than 12 years, Bette Levine, a former commercial illustrator, converted her garage into an art studio, complete with a bathroom, a kitchen and built-in storage. Levine uses her studio to make a lot of different things, so having her tools in one place, along with the things she collects for her projects, helps inspire her creativity. “Seeing my collection of birds’ nests or fishing lures and wondering what can I do with them is great,” Levine says. “I’ll have everything I need right there.” Size: 350 square feet Location: Converted garage What it’s used for: Making things of all kinds Studio essentials: Storage, flat surfaces, light, an outdoor connection and a lot of electrical outlets
Originally a sleeping porch, this light-filled space lined with 50 feet of windows on three sides encourages comfort and creativity; it has the feel of an artistic treehouse. Designer Dana Triano replaced a bump-out and a window into an adjacent bathroom with a niche lined with shelves (over the sofa) that hold artist’s models. The 9-inch-wide redwood planks that surrounded the window were salvaged and turned into a Craftsman-inspired easel. Flanking the easel are plant stands with a rusted patina that were made from salvaged Los Angeles street lamps.
artists retreat in a house
A narrow space can be put to maximum use with a row of floor-to-ceiling shelving on one side and a desk, cupboards and more shelves on the other. Not a scrap of space is wasted, but there’s still room to move around — or do a spot of yoga — in the middle.
Potting station components: Many potting stations have a three-tier system — a top shelf for storing tools, a main work surface, and a lower shelf for stashing pots and bags of soil and amendments. Beyond that, there is plenty of opportunity to customize it to best suit your gardening needs. Consider adding an outdoor sink, drawers to store additional tools and supplies, built-in bins to hold potting soil, or a shade structure to cover the entire setup.
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