CREATING A HOME ART STUDIO FROM MY KIDS’ PLAYROOM
Have you thought about creating a home art studio? Many new artists tell me it’s often hard to get started because they don’t have a dedicated space to paint. When I first began painting, I set up a little corner of our unused formal living room with my easel. I put all my painting supplies in a basket and brought it out when I wanted to paint. Was it pretty? Nah. But it works as long as you are ok with everyone seeing your mess. I covered the hardwoods with a tarp and went to work. Some artists paint at the dining room table or on a screened porch. I didn’t do it when my kids’ were small, but many artists set up and easel and paint right next to where their kids play.
That said, creating a home art studio makes it easy to leave everything out when you race out to pick the kids up at carpool or head back to work.
Eventually, I moved my studio from the living room to a guest bedroom. However, our kids are grown, and we had this large unused playroom. It had great light and plenty of space. We let them redecorate their playroom in ‘South Carolina Gamecock garnet’ when they were in their early teens. I know, what was I thinking? My husband and I graduated from Carolina, so we were ok with the transition.
They chose a pleather couch and some gaming chairs and added a mini fridge and microwave. We bought a cool Wiliams Brice Stadium Fathead sticker as the room’s focal point. The boys left the legos but added more Gamecock accents. We now officially called it the ‘game room’ and the boys insisted we could no longer call it the ‘playroom.’
Fast-forward several years, one kid is in college in Texas, and the other has already graduated from college and is working in Atlanta. We had all this space, but I was using a small bedroom as a home art studio. So why was I memorializing this room? It was such a piece of their teen years. I hated to redo it. But I took a few pictures and started slapping on paint swatches, and began creating a home art studio.
I wanted my home art studio to be light, bright, and feminine. So the first thing to go was the garnet walls.
I finally selected a Sherwin-Williams Pure White to brighten the room, and I had someone else paint it because it required three coats. We moved out the bookshelf full of legos and sold the gaming chairs.
I like creating ‘stations where I do different types of work.
I had already created a ‘framing station’ in the playroom and stacked blank canvases in various locations around the room. So, I created multiple stations around the room. One area holds my finished work, and one for new canvases. I moved my desk to one end of the room and created a space for my computer work and one for a painting flat.
We got rid of the pleather couch and chose a white one for creative naps. Not really. Originally I had planned to use it as a photo staging area to showcase my work for social media, but I ended up decorating it with my favorite artists’ work instead. I ordered pink and green pillows from Etsy and added a vintage rug. It is a great spot to journal, read art books for inspiration, or plan my next collection—a cozy, creative space.
In the process, I discovered that I needed to separate my studio space from my art space, so I ultimately moved the easel out completely. This sounds counterintuitive, but now I have a cozy art office and another area where I paint large work on my easel. I still use the former playroom space to draw in my sketchbook and work on flat on smaller pieces, but I usually paint at my easel. It keeps me from getting distracted by computer work while I’m supposed to be painting. If you don’t have extra space, just put down a tarp and create a station near a window for your easel.
My new space is one where I enjoy spending my time, which renews my creativity, and provides space for me to draw, sketch and create.
Want to see the my art collection in this room? Or the art that I am inspired to create in this space?
