Playing With The Layout

Edited 9:20 AM

SO... skip all of the below. After drawing out a template of my current studio and superimposing it over the potential new space and analyzing the differences in terms of adding the curl-up chair, a different loss of privacy, and where would the computer go, I decided that I'm not confident enough that the benefits outweigh the negatives. If I personally could slide everything around and decide, no problem, I'd try it, but because it requires significant involvement from other people including dismantling, reassembling, unhooking and re-hooking up and because that space has limitations that I'm already familiar with from the last time I was there, I think it's better to wait - maybe even until Kyle moves out - LOL - so I'll ponder what I can do with what I have instead although that means no curl-up chair for now.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This has been one of the most interesting moves I've ever made and I've made a lot. For some reason my ability to figure out what should go where with certainty has deserted me. Perhaps it's a lesson in not arrogantly assuming that I'm right all the time or perhaps it's just a a really yucky year. I was telling a friend yesterday that the back-to-back crap started on New Year's Eve and with the exception of my birthday and our miracle grandbaby, this has been my worst year ever - and that's saying a lot - cause I've had some real winners - which means that I'm looking forward to Christmas with the kids and after that 2013 can't come fast enough for me.

And when it does, I hope it finds me settled into a studio that feels like home, one where I don't have to keep the blinds closed because I'm so visible to the neighbourhood. I'm not a blinds closed kind of girl only with where our unit is positioned in the complex and with the wonderful lighting we installed, the neighbours can clearly see all the details of whatever I'm designing which is great for them and bad for me. All I see is black. It's uncomfortable - like being behind one way glass - so the shorter and darker the days, the more I've been avoiding the studio and that just won't do.

I didn't realize how environmentally sensitive I am. Is it aging or have I just never been in a situation  where I had to notice before? Who knows. Whatever it is, I'm adding "can't be visible to every Tom, Dick, and Harry walking up and down the street" to the list of things I know about my perfect studio.

Basically we're shifting three rooms. We moved the family room on Wednesday night. It's now in what was originally supposed to be - and one day will be - Howard's office and then became the second studio and then became the guest room and is now becoming the family room. The guest room bed is leaning up against the window in my area so I can paint. It will be going upstairs to the current studio which will become the guest room which is exactly what it was when we first moved in.  Considering my studio is going back into half of the original space maybe I did - sort of - know what went where. I just didn't know it required downsizing significantly and sharing.

Howard and I are sharing what would be called the recreation room on the original floor plan. My end is the one with the blue - now green - wall and his end is the one with the door. The dividing line is at the edge of those white upper cabinets. They are his. I get everything to the left including the window which works for him because he's always closing the blinds to get the glare off the computer screen. The dividing wall will be as high as the top of the cupboards.

On the layout above, the blue wall is at right and the window wall is at the bottom. There's a 42" wall that forms a jog into the room at top right. In the earlier picture, you can see it covering up the door to my son's room. In this layout, the work counter is forming the divide between the two spaces and below...

... it's on the wall at the top which is really the best choice because the upper cabinets can be easily secured above. The other way there's no wall to screw the cabinets to and the one we want to build will only be temporary and not attached to the floor or ceiling meaning not really safe for holding upper cabinets. We'd have to get ceiling mounts and I'd rather not.

At first, it seemed like I could have the curl-up chair or the computer but not both and the chair was winning but I think I've figured it out. In this last layout, the work counter is at the top, the computer and bookshelf are to the right, the sewing desks are in the middle, the curl-up chair is angled in front of the window, and the filing cabinet, Millicent, and the design wall are on the dividing line. The three circles are my two desks chairs and Millicent. They're slightly bigger than scale to illustrate pivot room.

There is a 2 1/2 foot opening to the laundry room at top left, 1 1/2 feet between the sewing desks and the curl-up chair, a 2 foot x 4 foot triangle between the sewing desks and the computer, 2 feet between the work counter and the corner of the sewing desks, almost 3 feet between the corner of the wall and the sewing desks, and a 3 foot entrance into the space. On paper, it's a bit tight but works. We'll have to see what happens in real life.

Today, I'm painting white trim and then I'll start packing. Howard and I plan to move the work counter tonight and I need to ask the boys (young men) to come and move the furniture on Saturday - which I'm somewhat mortified to do - and hoping that a steak dinner will be motivation enough.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - having my favourite color in my studio again