I live in a two bedroom corner apartment right next to a fantastic park.  I have two drawers in the whole space.  That didn’t really work for me right off the bat because I moved in from a spot that had 6 drawers.  I was actually looking for a solution to the drawer problem (where to put all my kitchen towels and utensils??) when I found the IDEAL solution for an art studio.

The best lighting in my whole living space is in the kitchen – of course, right?  I needed a way to house all my painting stuff in a compact way that would be cooking friendly and keep my art stuff clean, dry, but still have it all be accessible when I want to work on a piece of art.

In the kitchen.

Where I may or may not be cooking/baking/entertaining.

It occurred to me that this problem had already been solved, but with a more *traditionally* masculine bent on it in the form of garage work spaces.  A bank of drawers for hand tools, more commonly known as a workbench is it!  I thought this the ideal solution for the kitchen utensils and towels.  But, after looking at a few, I soon discovered they’re also the perfect Art Studio “in-a-Box.”

They come in all sizes and shapes!  They’re on wheels!  They’re metal and practically indestructible!  They have a wooden top or you can take that off and use the metal top!

For $300 and a little handy work putting the wheels on myself, I found something remarkable.  I’ve a drawer just for paint, one for finished pieces, one for my paper, one for journals and reference material, one for camera stuff, and a couple others for the miscellaneous stuff that comes with painting.  It functions as a standing desk, but I can also pull out a couple of the drawers, lay the wooden top over them and pull up a chair for a sitting desk.  I even found that I could elevate the wooden top with a few blocks and hide my work from my curious cat so she doesn’t have the opportunity to “play” with my work while I’m sleeping.  I’m able to use magnetic clips to extend the storage space for larger books of paper, too.

Even better, when I have people over for a paint party, I am easily able to rearrange my space to accommodate multiple artists  for the party, have several flat surfaces for hors d’oeuvres and beverages that aren’t also where my artist friends will be painting, and we’ve got easy access to the kitchen sink for water.

PS: I’m blogging along with Effy Wild in April. If you’d like to join the facebook group to read the rules, go here: