With the new year comes all sorts of resolutions or as I call them, promises you don’t intend to keep. This year, I’m certain will be no different but I’m off to a good start.
One of the things I’ve been working towards is a less-cluttered workspace. Transitioning the bulk of my work to digital files has helped that effort tremendously. My most important tools now consist of a computer, a scanner, and several different photo editing software packages.
Almost two years ago, when I decided to pursue my photography work more seriously, one of the things I was missing was an office, a workspace. After discussing this new venture with my husband, we decided to turn the guest bedroom into my “atalier”. Needless to say, having company is now less convenient as our guests have to sleep on the couches in the living room. However, it made no sense to have a guest room reserved for the once-a-year visitors, when I could foresee using an office every day of the week.
The process has been somewhat slow. Progress is made in fits and starts, taking place between the design gigs, photography shows, work, and the rest of daily life.
We started by empyting the room and, along with several years of accumulated stuff, having a yard sale. Once that was done, we cleaned the carpet and began repainting. I had decided that I did not want a conventional office. I wanted a studio – a space that could function as a photography workspace in addition to an office. To that end, I selected a Ralph Lauren paint color that unfortunately, doesn’t render terribly well in photos. It’s a deep mossy green. Along one wall, I painted the word “Lamour” in two shades of deep, mottled red, inspired by the gigantic steel sign looming over Christian’s flat in Baz Luhrman’s “Moulin Rouge”.
We used the yard-sale proceeds to buy shelving and work surfaces. I kept an old chest with five drawers, which I repaired (new backing), repainted (espresso), and installed new drawer pulls (brushed silver). The chest is now used to organize framing, packaging, and shipping supplies, as well as some show supplies (signs, business card holders, etc). I repainted the interior of the closet a semi-gloss bright white and installed the shelving (also white). The shelving now provides storage for prints, negatives, photo albums, photography books, my cameras and other supplies, along with items like mat board, frames, etc.
A quick trip to Ikea brought home two desks. One is at standard desk height and is home to the usual desk accoutrement (monitor, keyboard, speakers, scanner, etc) . The other desk is about 7 inches taller and provides a sturdy work surface to use while framing my prints. I really didn’t want to have the desks along the wall so I chose to place them in the center of the room, perpendicular to each other; again, the space needed to not feel like a regular office.
I pulled a set of old drapes out of storage and hung them in the room to provide some softness and a contrasting color (they’re eggplant-colored stamped velvet, which sounds just awful, but they’re actually quite nice).
It became obvious fairly quickly that I needed more space to store framed prints so I built four photo shelves (narrow shelves with a lip, upon which frames are set to lean against the wall). Sadly, two of them had to cover the “Lamour” sign. It’s still there peeking out from behind the shelves and prints.
The latest improvements reflect my growing obsession with minimalism. Every January finds me walking about the house, editing ruthlessly. Too much stuff. My office had become no exception, so last weekend I did a major purge of all the gack I don’t need anymore and now, finally, my “atalier” is complete!
