Studio in a Studio

I was chatting on the phone the other day with my brother-in-law and was telling him about my new crafting studio in our new apartment. He stopped for a second and then asked, "Wait - you have a studio in your studio?"

Well, yes, I guess I do! As you know, we moved recently into a new place and while it is technically a studio, and as such is quite small, I desperately wanted a space that I could call my own. A space where I could create, where I could organize all my tools and materials and have them at arm's length!

After presenting my proposals to Dean (in the form of sketches and floor plans), he graciously allowed me to turn our dining area into my very own studio! What a sweetheart. We now eat either at the breakfast bar or parked at the coffee table in front of our TV. I think he's okay with this arrangement. :)

Here's how the space looked before - so sad and forlorn (okay, maybe that's just the poor, indoor lighting at night).
And here's a look at my studio now - so bright and cheery. :)

After lots of research, I settled on a VIKA AMON tabletop with two VIKA ARTUR trestle legs with shelves. They would have cost $90 brand-new from Ikea, but I lucked out and was able to find the whole set on Craigslist for $45. I love how the trestle legs are adjustable so that I can set the whole tabletop a couple inches higher to help prevent back fatigue when I stand up for projects.

The four cubes on the right and the ribbon spool were all bought from Michaels when they had a 50% off sale. The bookshelf on the left is from Wal-Mart. (Would not recommend buying furniture from Wal-Mart. It was such a pain to put together.)

Some details: Hope you enjoyed that peek into my little studio. :)