Creating a Crating & work from home desk

When my hubby was lucky enough to win an IKEA giftcard I wasn't sure what to spend it on. I finally decided on buying a desk.  I pictured it as a place to corral all my arts and crafts supplies and to swing trade during the day. I looked at the selection of desks at IKEA and chose one that was a modest size and had good storage.

The gpals I had for getting this desk were:

1. To store all my art supplies in one place since they were all over the house
2. To reduce my time searching for supplies and instead use the supplies to finish more projects
3. To preserve the quality of the paints and supplies since they're costly and shouldn't be wasted
4. To have a workspace that is comfortable so I'll be more likely to actually want to sit there and work
5. To have the desk near a window so sunlight and a view would be inspiring
6. To be able to have a space that was suitable for both work, meaning trading or writing and play, meaning art

Working on reaching this goal meant gathering all of my art supplies and work papers while my hubby assembled the desk. I thought I might as well stick to what I'm good at, which doesn't include putting furniture together!

Some of my supplies before organizing - in a closet

I organized all of the supplies into multiple piles that made sense. First I gathered all of my paints, then divided them up between oils, watercolours and acrylics.  Then I chose appropriate containers to hold the supplies. I wanted to make the supplies easy and quick to get to and to keep them in good condition.

Starting the organizing

Organizing ideas

-Putting my sketchbooks and work papers on the built-in desk shelves

-Keeping pencils in a pencil tin

-Putting paints in shoeboxes, or plastic bins in case they leaked

Some of my paints, all together now!

-Leaving enough room to have a tablet and laptop so that I could swing trade and write or craft all at the same time

-Making paintbrushes easily accessible - I reused a wine storage box that had been sitting for a while unused. It was the perfect height and had a lot of space for all my brushes!

My wine storage box, reinvented into brush storage

Brushes!

The last thing I added to my desk are things to inspire me when I'm sitting in it. So I added one painting I painted, one that a friend gave me, some photos of my son and I and some seasonal decorations. I'll be changing the decor regularly, just for fun.

So I reached my goal, with organizing my art supplies in one place! I've found I really do enjoy sitting an working at my desk. It's nice to have a space that's all my own...except when my son climbs up on my chair and throws my pencils everywhere! I'm saving a lot of time since all my supplies are in one, organzied, relaxing place.

The end product - trading & painting away!