my new table

I'm so lucky. For the first time I have a whole room just for my creative endeavors.  It's an extra bedroom that started out with just a table and bookcase for me to paint.  Then I discovered collage and my love of paper took over the room.  Other things that were stored there have gradually been moved out and into closets, etc. while paper and paint have taken over the art room.

It started out like this...

Here's a peek into my art room now....

My newest addition is an old hollow core door bought at a salvage store - you can see it gives me about 18" more space per side!  Now I have half the table for cutting/gluing/stamping/collage and half for painty messes.  I LOVE my new table! (I just laid it on top of my old one...I like the extra height since I stand when I make art.)

I found an old overhead to an office desk for more table top area (I do tend to spread and stack a bit!) and there's that original bookcase.  I have tried many storage options for my stencils - I tend to need them out and close at hand or I don't use them so they came out of bins and my faves are hanging on a tension curtain rod in the window and the rest are hanging on a shutter I bought at a yard sale. So far this seems to be working.

 This is the 'back' side of the worktable - my sewing machine and a folding table for miscellaneous less-used supplies.

These gorilla shelves originally held all sorts of miscellaneous house stuff - now that's all moved out and paper and art stuff moved in. :)

I've tried so many ribbon storage ideas and finally found one that seems to work - these are narrow over-the-bathtub storage things.  It's easy to thread the ribbon through the slats which helps keep them in place and they don't get tangled. Plus when I empty a spool or want to take it to my worktable it just lifts out. Perfect!

Isn't it amazing how you can expand to fill all available space?????