Sunday, January 28, 2007

An Office/Studio of One's Own - Minus A Corner

The final installation of the shelving happened today. I pretty much stayed inside all day trying to contain the madness that was about to happen with me laying fabric all over the living room so that I could see what was going to make it into the new units. Of course I forgot to factor in what new shelving space I would have from a smaller bookcase when I removed pieces of embroidered silks and dupionis from its shelves, and when I realized the possibilities of finally storing printer paper in a respectable place vs under the couch, I had to approach the situation carefully.

I'm sitting in the office/studio right now. Can I call it a studio? Office is so office-carpet-ish. And we have none of that here. I have two bundles of tulle on top of the shelving units, but no office carpet. The new Epson Stylus Photo R800 is ready and waiting to print pretty shipping labels that will soon design. I covered my little Ikea chair seat with a small strip of chalky chocolate brown silk velvet that I got from the scrap bin at The Silk Trading Company below ABC Home and Carpet. I'm trying to get into a cozy groove, so I've got the Trinity Session on and am drinking some chamomile tea as I type, but to be honest, my to-do list is so exciting, I can't quite come down. And I need to put fresh sheets on the bed, and that always a bit of drag, but soo refreshing to get into.

Better than me gabbing, here is the photo diary of the day!

David holding and testing the massive shelf. He later pulled it out of the wall with ease, so that wasn't going to work.


Derek the Super did some testing of the wall to see what was behind the layers of plaster, and declared it a type of brick, and drilled into it. I don't think this shelf is going to fall. If it did, I would be very sad.


Oliver. Any surprise he was batting around screws on the floor? This is him (and me pre-noon, so normally you would not be seeing me in this state) before he got grounded to the bedroom.


This is a Mountain of Terror. It does reside in the studio, and is the partnership between my file cabinet and David's file cabinet. With everything else that doesn't fit anywhere piled on top of it. This is a project for another month.


The shelf....


And this needs to go into it. So interesting unpacking it from piles of stuffed bags stuffed into corners. There were pieces from the shop that was assembling the checkbook covers, so it was great to see their efficient footprints as I pulled out rows cut for the lining of the checkbook cover, or a curious way of cutting the interfacing also for the checkbook cover that may have revealed how they did such a great job of making the closing seam invisible when they turned the checkbook cover right side out. And please note Dinah in Gerdy's bed. Entitled.


This corner I give to David. It's the equivalent to a man giving a woman a drawer. I hope he uses it well.


The shelf is stuffed and organized by type of fabric - muslin and interfacing, embroidered silks or cottons, velvets, dupioni, pleather and leather.


Complete.


It has made a huge difference, let me tell you. It fits perfectly into the space. It doesn't stick out, and it gives the room so much more purpose. Let's give David a huge round of applause for picking out such a fine set of shelving from Ikea for Christmas! He remembered my glass-top desk, and matched it with the type of glass doors that will keep the fabric safe from dust.

I think the tea is kicking in, as I'm getting a little dreamy. And Dinah has taken to sitting on my lap, but that's where my laptop is, so it makes typing hard. But I'll leave you with this: throw things away! Today was a great day of throwing/giving away things that just have not been used. More later!

Home | Link to this

No comments: