You need a dedicated space to work your magic as an artist. An art studio keeps your creative juices flowing, focused, and consistent. Consistency is critical to making significant milestones in any area of one’s life, including artistry.
The beauty is that you don’t need to build a separate space for your work. You can transform any part of your home into an art studio with a little creativity—from your living room, attic, basement to your garage. Here are some tips for making an art studio at home.
Find Out the Best Place to Set it Up
The first step is to making an art studio at home is to find the best place to set up an art studio. Most spaces, like the basement, garden sheds, and closets under staircases, are underutilized. Some homeowners use them for storage, but they’re often disorganized. You can transform such spaces into art studios on a modest budget.
You can start by setting up a desk or a table to place your painting tools, add unique rugs, and install some shelves to get you going. If the basement is available for creating an art studio, set up a heating system and a humidifier to keep you cool and comfortable without compromising your work.
For some painters, reimagining a closet under a staircase is the best way to get their juices flowing. To transform the space, you must move the clothes, shoes and other items to a different space to create room for the studio. Then install a fold-up desk and use the existing shelves to store art supplies.
However, the garage is a perfect space if you prefer setting up the art studio away from the house. You only need to get rid of the clutter by sorting it into things that can be donated, kept, and discarded.
And while at it, paint one of the walls with your favorite color to make the space more inviting or provide a sense of inspiration. If you’re not a fan of DIYs, you can always hire a house painting company for the best results.
Adequate ventilation is critical for spaces like art supplies like paint, glue, and dry-erase markers containing volatile organic compounds that are harmful to humans when inhaled for an extended period. You can install exhaust fans, an air conditioning unit, or a fume extractor to ensure clean airflow. Here are tips to help you transform each of the spaces into an art studio:
Transform a Sunroom into an Art Studio
Sun rooms are great places to transform into art studios for painters who love natural lighting. The space is functional and has a sense of tranquility you won’t find elsewhere in a home art studio.
The sunroom can be in the attic, patio, or other location that receives lots of natural light. A home’s south or southeast side is known to capture the most sunlight. After identifying the sunroom, you only need to install a few fixtures to transform it into an art studio.
You can begin making an art studio at home by bringing a table and a chair to work on. The table should be sturdy enough, while the chair should provide ample back support to keep you comfortable when working on the paintings.
Next, install a few cabinets and shelves to keep your supplies organized. You may also add lighting to keep the area lit at night or during cloudy days. It would help to add desk lamps, pendant lights, floor lamps, or other lighting to supplement natural light. Pendant lighting, for example, lights up the space and adds dimension to the room.
You may also add soft furnishings like curtains and rugs to make the space more inviting. Most sunrooms have unusual shapes, making it challenging to find a theme that complements the space perfectly. Layering the space with rugs lends a unique visual interest, while the softness under your feet makes the space more welcoming.
Rethink the Flooring
Painting can be messy, hence the need to rethink the flooring of an art studio. When making an art studio at home, you don’t want a floor that stains easily and is difficult to clean. Rubber, vinyl, porcelain tile, hardwood, or linoleum floors are the best for art spaces because they’re easy to clean and are affordable.
Rubber flooring is an excellent option for a slip-resistant floor with sound-absorbing capabilities. Some painters love listening to loud music when painting, and having a floor that reduces noise levels is a bonus. Rubber floors are also an eco-friendly choice for high-traffic art studios./p>
Hardwood floors also make a great flooring option for art studios because they last long and complement a range of decor styles. However, they are prone to staining, dents, warping, and scratches, hence a less desirable alternative for such spaces. You’re likely to spill paint, glue, and other liquids when painting, so you want a floor that’s easy to clean.
Hardwood flooring contractors will likely recommend laminate floors because they look similar to hardwood floors. They’re also more affordable, easy to install, stain-resistant, and their photographic layer creates a texture that imitates natural materials.
Vinyl floors, on the other hand, provide an affordable and long-lasting floor option for your art studio. Since they’re available in different colors and patterns, you can create a unique look for your space.
Install Lighting
Lighting is important even when making an art studio at home. It helps you focus for hours, especially when renovating windowless spaces like basements and garages. You should start by taking stock of the lighting in that space to determine if it needs new or additional lighting.
Often, residential lighting isn’t enough to light up an art studio, hence the need to install more lighting. Plug-in lights are an excellent alternative because they are versatile and distribute lighting evenly throughout a space. However, hanging lights may be a better option if the space is vast.
You may enlist an electrician‘s help with the wiring and choose the best lighting for your studio. Typically, the Color Rendering Index should help you find the best light bulb for your art studio. The index shows the bulb’s ability to display colors accurately on a print or canvas.
The index uses a scale of 1-100, the highest number being the best for displaying natural hues when they’re most vibrant. For painting, light bulbs with a CRI of 80-100 are the best. You also need to consider the light temperature. Light bulbs emitting orange or yellow light are considered warm, while those emitting white light are called cool. Warm lighting is the best for painting.
Set up Storage Areas
It’s easy to get messy when painting, but it doesn’t mean your art studio should remain unorganized and unkempt. As you’re making an art studio at home, you can set up storage areas to keep the space tidy. Freestanding shelving units provide ample space to store art supplies and are readily available.
You can repurpose an old unit by painting it and using it to store supplies. However, if you have little room in your art studio, take advantage of vertical space. A DIY storage wall can help you keep all the tools accessible and easy to see. Pegboards, wall-mounted shelves, and hanging baskets are great versatile storage options.
Craft baskets under marble countertops also make excellent storage places. You can stow away brushes, paints, canvases, and other tools neatly to avoid wasting time looking for specific supplies. Label each basket with the respective supplies to avoid mixing them up.
Convert the Closet Under the Staircase to an Art Studio
Sometimes, you want a small space to set up a desk, art supplies, and a chair to get you started. And a space under the staircase is the perfect place to set up a small art studio. The setup is affordable as you only need appropriate lighting, install shelves, and custom countertops that can fit in the unusual space.
Note that this set-up only works in a house that isn’t crowded or has too much foot traffic. Also, if your work requires solitude and a lot of concentration, you may need to look for a more enclosed space to set up an art studio.
Convert a Spare Room to an Art Studio
If you’re lucky to have an extra room in your house, you use that space when making an art studio at home. To create as much working space as possible, remove any furniture you don’t need, bed, or other furniture eating into the space.
Bring a desk, chair, and art supplies to start. You may also install floating shelves in custom built in cabinet design instead of bulky units. Floating shelves are thinner and are attached directly to the wall, making them look and feel like one unit. You may have them installed above artwork or a desk to free up valuable floor space for artists working in multiple mediums.
Reimagine the Basement
The basement is another ideal place for making an art studio at home. Repurposing it to a studio is easy, especially if it’s finished. A finished basement has essential aspects like the lighting, heating and cooling systems set up.
If the basement isn’t finished, you can still transform it into an art studio by laying some rugs, drop cloths, and installing shelving. This is an excellent alternative when working on a limited budget.
However, you may need to spend money on lighting, especially if the space is dimly lit. You may enlist the help of a window replacement company to help you install windows to allow natural light in. Large windows allow as much natural light as possible, but you may also need to add artificial light if working late at night.
You also want to ensure the space has adequate ventilation for proper heating and cooling. That’s because humidity is critical when you want to dry and store artwork and supplies. Also, artwork gets damaged easily in extremely humid spaces. As such, you should consider installing a dehumidifier too.
When such aspects are out of the way, you want to personalize the space. You can paint the blank walls with a favorite color, hang a mural that resonates with your personality, photos, or decorations that you’re comfortable with.
Transform the Corner of a Room to an Art Studio
If your living space, bedroom, or wardrobe space is spacious, you can take over one of the corners and transform it into an art studio. You only need to put up a storage trolley, corner desk, shelves, and a pinboard neatly.
If the wall space is important to you, remove the desk and any items adjacent to the walls to create a more spacious area. Be sure to sprinkle sawdust around the area to avoid damaging the floor and extend the dust sheet up the perimeters of the wall to protect the wallpaper. Since such an art studio feels open and invasive, it would help to install doors to enhance privacy.
Repurpose a Shed Into an Art Studio
For painters who love the outdoors, a shed is a great place to use when making an art studio at home. You’ll probably set it up in the backyard, giving you a separate space away from your house. This is an excellent trick to help you focus on the artwork, as there are minimal distractions while accessing your house.
The first step would be transforming the shed into an art studio. Most properties have sheds that can be converted to beautiful art studios, but if you don’t have one, you could purchase a shed from a shed company.
If buying one, you want to ensure it’s placed where the sun can reach it to keep the studio well-lit. The backyard is the best place to set up as there’s adequate space; if not, the stamped concrete patio can double up as an art studio. It makes erecting the shed easier as you don’t have to install new flooring.
You must also ensure the shed is accessible from your house and it is spacious. The shed should have adequate overhead space to allow you to move around and store supplies and tall objects. You can list all the items you need to use and determine how much space they need to avoid repeating the project.
These few points can help you when making an art studio at home without much capital investment. You can reimagine a basement, a corner in your living room, bedroom, basement, or garage, and transform it into your dream art studio. The trick is to decorate the spaces, ensure adequate lighting and ventilation, and personalize them with your style.
