Studio Makeover
Happy 2026 everyone! I hope everyone had a lovely holiday season and that you are refreshed and ready for this new year. I just got back from a lovely solo vacation to visit my parents in New England right after Christmas and enjoyed a two week break. During that two week vacation I did some dreaming about doing a major overhaul on my art studio. After having three vendor/craft fairs during the holiday season my studio was a complete wreck. I was just realizing my studio was not very inspirational to me but seemed chaotic. So I knew if I wanted to have a productive year I needed to fix that.
I realized that visual clutter can really bog me down, make me unproductive, stressed, and uninspired. My studio was all kinds of clutter. Here’s some before photos below. NO judgement please, this girl has been super busy creating!
When I was brainstorming what I wanted in my space I knew I did not care for the industrial look of my art table and I did not like all of my supplies being on display. The visual clutter was overwhelming to me. I also figured out that I love antiques and a cozy more vintage vibe so that’s the direction I went in. I decided to start with acquiring a new art table. I love antiques as you might be able to tell but I had a thrift store budget. So one day I went on a trip with my mom to one of our favorite local thrift stores. There I found the perfect table. It’s not too big to where I’m tempted to fill it with art supplies but it’s’ cute and cozy. The neat feature is it can be folded out to a much bigger table if I was wanting to work on a bigger project. The bonus is it was only fifty bucks! I think it’s perfect.
After deciding on a table I realized the other big problem I had was the shelves I had all my craft supplies on that took up an entire wall. After a discussion from my brilliant mother she suggested I completely cleaned my closet out of the few things I kept in there. Then stick the cubby shelves in there so that my supplies could be more hidden from my view, but still organized in a neat way. So that’s what I did and I love it so much. I put a curtain panel on the doorway using a tension rod making me able to hide what’s inside the closet. It’s amazing how much stuff you can fit in a closet with the right shelving. Bonus was I did not have to purchase anything new. Yay!
The other thing I thought of while dreaming up the perfect studio was being able to have a cozy place to sit when I was wanting to rest a moment or just sit and contemplate ideas for new art and projects. So after getting those cubbies and supplies in the closet I was able to use that space for a cozy sitting area. Eventually I might paint over the butterfly, but my daughter painted it and makes me smile. I’ve been currently enjoying this corner during my afternoon tea time.
One of the necessary but not exactly fun spaces of my studio is my printing area. I use this to scan my art and make art prints and cards. Printers and scanners and all its supplies is not exactly pretty. But with a cute primitive cloth thrown over the table it looks so much better now because it hides the drawers under the table with all my printing supplies. It really is the little touches that can turn a working place into a nice cozy space.
I left my table last for decorating. I knew that I did not want to clutter it up so I just sorted through the supplies I use daily and put the rest on the shelf next to the table. Or if I had some supplies I hadn’t used in a while but did not want to get rid of I stored in a container under my bed. The good thing about antique beds are that they are much higher off the ground allowing for a great amount of storage underneath. I love collecting antique vases or old porcelain planters. They are perfect for my art supplies and they are pretty to look at. Pretty things just make me smile and we all need more smiles in our lives. Then I found a cute new apothecary off of amazon to put my hand sewing supplies in. In addition to art I love to make handsewn Mice ornaments and this year some handsewn tiny dolls hopefully. So this gives me all my threads, needles, and other notions handy and ready to use.
Then above the table on the wall I knew I wanted to have it cozy with pieces of my own or other artists I love. I also have a fun sampler I found at a yard sale and a beautiful cross stitch that my grandmother made me when I was younger that just makes me smile. Now when I sit to create I have nice calm vibes that are much more inspirational then the chaos I had before.
Then the last area I’ll show you is my guest bed area with my art shelves. I love having a studio but in order to use this room I had to keep a bed in here in case of guests. I love the antique bed I have here with a quilt that was my grandmothers. Then I have various art on the walls and a special shelf that my son in law made so I can put art work I make up there. They just lay on the shelf so it makes for easy display and easy to change out when pieces sell. Currently since it’s the new year I don’t have a whole lot of my finished pieces up there yet, but hopefully that will change soon.
Every studio needs a good studio dog right? This is Bear and he is loving the new addition of this carpet!
Now that I have a nice cozy studio I can get busy with all I want to make this year. I have plans to put my art for sale on this website again soon and hopefully add new prints and originals throughout the year. Then in the Fall and Holiday time I will be doing a couple craft/vendor fairs again.
What’s your favorite part of my new studio? Does a nice cozy pretty place inspire you to get to creating like me?