I love meeting people and hearing about their ventures and passions. It makes grad school extra fascinating because every single person has a project they would love to share with you. Be it park design, flame retardancy, or anything in between I am all ears. I may not always fully understand, but I am a firm believer in SSLANT, and I will sit up, smile, look at you, nod, and track with your wild arm flailings. (If you haven't heard of SSLANT before, I hadn't either before reading Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers. It's an intriguing book on successful people and the unexpected underlying causes behind such success, and it's definitely worth a read! I digress.)
When Emma from WeWork reached out to me with her exploration of creative spaces, naturally, I was hooked. WeWork provides the platform creators need to springboard into new ideas with services from networking events and work spaces to micro-brewed coffee. It sounds amazing! With a focus on building creative environments in which fresh entrepreneurial spirit can thrive, Emma wants to open a dialogue about our personal spaces. So, without further ado, I invite you to enter my summer space as well as the conversation.
Welcome to the Shetland Studio.
Storage
You can't really replace good storage (unless you live near the Container Store, then you could replace it and rereplace it weekly. I positively drool an ocean when I enter that establishment.) I like mine organized and color-coordinated. Sometimes doors are better. Sometimes they aren't.
Display Options
I think it's important to bounce back and forth between ideas and use old ones as stepping stones to new creative heights. For this reason, I like to have easy places to hang and change out previous projects. A five dollar tension rod from Target and a set of ring clips are perfect, especially for quilts.
Trusty Sewing Machine
This is the crux of a sewing studio, so naturally, it's in the middle of the space. I love my Bernina (although this one is my mother's, to be fair.) Berninas are precision workhorses, and hers is even transportable! What I wouldn't give for the new Bernina 830 with stitch regulation and a vast deep throat. Heck, how amazing would it be to have my own long-arm machine!
Stations
Stations are important to me: design station, ironing station, sewing station, cutting station. That way the transitions between pieces of a project don't slow or hinder me.
Big Work Tables
Aside from large amounts of storage, I also appreciate copious flat work spaces. An uncluttered wide open table is the same as a blank page in my opinion. It is a springboard for the creative mind to leap into the unknown (or simply the next project).
Design Wall
All you need is an old flannel sheet, another tension rod, and some command hooks. It's a game changer for me when it comes to designing and squinting and rearranging. And speaking of squinting, it's handy to have an old pair of binoculars within reach. Looking through them backwards gives a great impression of movement and overall composition. Don't have a pair? Take a photo on your phone. It gets about as small and works just the same!
Comfy Seating
At the end of our garage studio space, we have a futon and rocking glider. Although this is technically because our studio doubles as guest bedroom, I find it a nice place to retire to for hand sewing, knitting, and the other unplugged untabled diversions.
Natural Light
There you have it: my studio space. To be honest, above all of these, I value natural light. It makes me happy. It shows me true colors. And it makes photographing for the blog a breeze. Now, if only I could figure out how to add natural-like light to my little workspace in Raleigh without knocking down walls for windows.
What are your favorite things in your studio space?
* I am not being sponsored by WeWork and cannot vouch for their integrity, but to me they seem pretty standup, and I like helping to spread burgeoning ideas.
