Studio Tour #20 - Margie from Bookcrazzzy

Welcome Back to another Studio Tour Saturday!

Last fall I was contacted by an artist/crafter named Margie. She doesn't have a blog or sell her work online but she does have an amazing studio to share.

Margie states that "It is teeny tiny but has some good ideas for making the most of a limited space." This compact studio is full of fantastic perks like a sink, ventilated spray station & light table. It also has some of the most interesting storage ideas I've seen yet!

There are so many great ideas packed into 1 space that I had a hard time choosing which to share. I've posted a sampling. You can find all 20 photos of her creative space on flickr - click here to visit Margie at Bookcrazzzy. The following text is from her flickr as well (with notes in parenthesis by me).


Margie: This is my art/craft space. It was a major challenge to make it work because the room is a tiny utility room and has the furnace in the middle of one room and it is about 3 x 4 feet. My husband built it all and did a great job.... (Shown here is the) main work area before I put metal on the cabinet above the desk.

Margie: My work surface with the light box on.

(Note the sink on left. Many artists tell me the #1 item on their studio wish list is a sink)

(to the right of this station is this round cabinet)

Margie: The round cabinet opens up. It holds an amazing amount of stuff and is loaded with gallons of paint but you can turn it with one finger.

Margie: Round cabinet closed.

(note the vertical drawer on this photo's right side- it is actually a sliding bookshelf)

Margie: The key to making (the studio) work and having enough storage was the huge sliding bookshelves. There are three of them, each 4' wide, with the one in the middle divided to have shallow shelves on each side, which makes a total of 16 feet of bookshelves in a 4 x 4 foot space.


Margie: This shows one of the sliding shelves open. They hang from the ceiling on barn door tracks and slide in and out quite easily. With all three slid out, it gives full access to the furnace.


Margie: This corner of the room is dedicated to spray painting. The little metal square in the work surface is a handle. The work surface lifts up, wings fold out and there is a grid for holding the thing to be painted. A fan is mounted below which pulls the air and overspray down and out of the house.


Margie: The door on the right leads outside. The top part of this section is a cabinet with sliding doors. My husband designed and cut a scene into the doors to allow ventilation. Under the wall-hung cabinet are three wheeled carts that I can pull out for additional work surfaces and, of course, storage.


Margie: The cabinet with the sliding shelves open. Those things hanging up are shoe organizers cut to a shorter size. There is a hook near my main work area so that I can take one of the organizers out of the cabinet and hang it close by for easy access while I'm working on a particular project.


Margie: This is the cart that I use for one-of-a-kind type embellishments and such. The "drawers" are cafeteria trays and are held up by simple strips of wood.


Margie: This shows the small cart in place with the tools on the pegboard.
(She is talking about a different storage cart here but I love the pegboard & had to sneak 1 more picture in)

Many thanks, Margie, for sharing your studio space!

Also a hearty congrats to your clever husband for building so many ingenious storage & work spaces! Margie, if you happen to catch this post, I'd love to share some examples of your artwork as well. If you send me an email (address is in my blogger profile), I'll be sure to add photos of your work to this post.

Thanks to all of you enjoy peeking behind the scenes! Remember to visit Margie's Flickr for even more photos. It is your interest that keeps these tours coming. If you have a creative space you'd like to share, please drop me an email. I am currently scheduling May onward. (For anyone who hasn't heard, tours are now posted every other Saturday.)

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