Renewal in the Studio and the Heart

Hi friends! Today I’m finally sharing a reveal of the renovations I’ve done on my studio since last winter. It has been quite a learning experience in carpentry, patience and person growth. I happen to believe that our spaces - whether it is an art studio or our living room, can really reflect where we are with ourselves and our lives. This idea is reinforced for me as I sit down to write this piece. As I pull old photos and new, I can see so much of my own evolution in this space as it grows and changes with me over the years.

This is where my studio space all began, back in 2016. I had just moved in with my now-husband to his house and we carved out the back of the basement for a studio for me…

Initially, my heart was so full. Having lived in apartments my entire life, I’d never been able to have a dedicated space for my art. But once I started trying to use it, I found I struggled. It felt dark and dingy. In the winter it was cold and took a long time to heat up the space. The floor was a hideous brown and covered in old paint splatters. The walls and ceiling all screamed with pop-corn texture that even a soft grey paint didn’t subdue much. The hundred-year-old cement floor was chipping away and not very paintable, not to mention being hard on the feet. It didn’t exactly feel inviting.

I’d never had an art space of my own though and I honestly didn’t know what to do to make it better. I didn’t feel I should spend the money to fix it up, and so I just tried adding a few cheap shelves on the walls, and using some existing shelving to organize. It still didn’t feel inviting though. Things continued like this for a few years… making tiny changes here and there but never really feeling better about the space.

Then sometime in 2019, I stumbled on this blog post from Ashley Hackshaw where she shared the evolution of her basement studio. It was like a lightbulb switching on. I suddenly saw what my studio could become, as well as seeing that those beautiful studios I drool over on Pinterest aren’t made overnight. It’s a gradual evolution and now I knew, I didn’t have to do it all overnight. I could just pick one piece to do now, and then another, and another over the years. The problem it turns out, is that I’d never spent any time really dreaming about what this space could be.

Combining this burst of inspiration with all the quarantine time in 2020, I began sketching out what I really wanted the space to be. If I had all the money I needed to renovate that space, what would I want? As I sketched, I added a full wall of cabinets with a desk space on one wall and lighting from under the top cabinets. I added a shallow cabinet and sink on the back wall for cleanup, a corner of shelves to store books and supplies, and a taller solid wood work table I could work at while standing. I replaced all the walls in my mind with smooth, beautiful white walls and a lovely wood floor. Once I really started to dream it all out, I realized I could also do a lot of these things in stages, and really could start right away!

Over last winter, my husband and I went to work on a few of the items I sketched out. I picked the few items that felt the most doable with the most impact: custom work tables, one new wall instead of doing all 3, and some built-in shelves in the corner nook. Before winter was over, we had all of these done and I couldn’t believe how much better the space felt. In the process, I even dreamed up a pegboard system I wanted for displaying finished work that we also built and installed very inexpensively! Things are far from done, and there’s still a ton on the “dream studio” list… but it’s so much more inviting now, and functional.

Through this process, I realized that the problem with creating an inspiring space really was simple: I just wasn’t allowing myself to have it. I needed to allow myself to dream, and then see how I could get there, instead of focusing on what couldn’t be done or how far I felt from the dream.

Throughout the rest of this year, I’ve added smaller touches that are “in-between versions” of the final dream space… not the exact visual, but something that gets me closer. We made the shallow work table on the back wall that can have a sink and cabinets added later. I bought three plastic drawer sets for storage until we can build some drawers into the work tables. I turned my old, plastic work table into a desk with a piece of teal cloth I already had. I covered up the busy open shelves with a scarf to make “closed cabinets” above my desk area. I bought some cheap foam padding for the floor and rescued a rug that my local art center was throwing out to just cover up the ugly cement and make it more comfortable to walk on. All of these smaller changes actually cost almost nothing at all, and combined they really transformed the space.

Whether it’s an art studio or some other aspiration, I really hope sharing this post reminds someone out there to do a little dreaming for themselves. I think we can get so bogged down in the “grown up” parts of life that we forget to dream, to wonder what else is possible, and to go after new things.

I’ve truly enjoyed everything about this process, from dreaming it up, to the memories made with my husband as we tore down walls, discovered all the wonderful hidden mold, and almost electrocuted ourselves… and finally to using this beautiful revised space and the feeling it gives me daily. It inspires me every time I step into it. It’s a space I’m not only excited to be in, but finally a space I’m proud to share, too.

Renovating my art studio isn’t really some huge thing, but it reminded me that sometimes just a small update to our lives can do a whole lot. While some things aren’t vital for living, they may be so very vital for adding quality and joy to our lives.

- With Love - 
Sarah