ARTHaven in the Making! - 1

I've taken some photos of my ARTHaven to be - I wish I'd taken some before I started sorting it out so I'd have true "before and after" pictures! Ah well. Actually it looks a lot more messy now I've started sorting it, because there are boxes everywhere... There's hardly a square inch on the floor for me to put my feet at the moment! Several of these boxes are filled and ready to go out, either to the recycling centre or the next village fete.

Up until now, this room has mainly been my office (which is what I have always called it) but it has also been a craft room of sorts. The big black shelves came from a shop that was closing down years ago - my hubby got them for me - they were a dirty cream colour and I painted them black to go with my desk and filing cabinets. I've done quite a lot of sewing in this room, and all my craft stuff, fabrics, embroidery equipment etc. is stored on the big shelves.

I am hoping to downsize the office aspect of this room - I've rationalised quite a lot, and can still use the filing cabinets. One drawer is full of old cassette tapes, and this will eventually be emptied as I gradually convert the ones I want to keep into mp3 files - I've already done quite a bit. I've also got boxes full of magazines with post-it notes stuck on them indicating which pages I want information off - some of these will be scanned and saved, and there's a lot of copy typing to be done too. I haven't kept up very well with this so there's a lot of work to do!

The big cardboard storage boxes in the third photo used to be up on top of the shelves above the desk - with the sections vertical, and they held lever arch files and loose leaf binders with lots of office stuff in them. These files are now stacked up on top of the big shelves along with other stuff that needs digital archiving - at least they are out of the way for now, and have freed up the boxes, which can now be used for paper storage for my creative activities.

I am waiting for a flat screen monitor to arrive from Ebay, and then I shall get rid of the big CRT one you can see on the photos. I will probably then remove the top part of that computer desk - it's got holders for CDs up each side and a shelf on the top, with a big space to accommodate a monitor. The tower of that desktop computer is on the bottom shelf, and I shall move that under the desk eventually, and put the new monitor on the desk. The desk will be mostly for computer-related stuff, and when I get my Cricut, that will probably be on there too, or alongside on the big wooden table, which is going to be turned round and put under the window, to get the best of the light. The computer desk, which is on castors, will be moved to the other side of the room, and without the weight of the computer on it, should be fairly easy to push around. I'm going to store things I don't use very often on the lower shelves of the big unit, and push the small black table in front of them. This is also on wheels and can be moved.

I've got myself a set of little plastic boxes with drawers, and these will probably go on the big table, with shelves between them, to keep all the bits I use more frequently. I may get one of those soft storage thingies (don't know what they are called!) with pockets, that you hang over the door, to keep punches etc. in.

As you can see, I've got a big anglepoise floor lamp - my hubby got this when one of the big Plymouth hospitals was closing down after the departments were moved to the new out-of-town site - my hubby used to work as a part-time chaplain at the hospital and had loads of contacts there. They were just throwing things away that were perfectly good, and he rescued quite a lot. The NHS is always short of money, but the amount they throw away, it's hardly surprising! My dad worked for the NHS for over 30 years, and the amount of things he rescued from dustbins and skips over the years - they threw out a whole telephone exchange once, and he brought enough stuff home to set up a little intercom system so my mum could call him in for meals from his workshop! He also has one of these floor lamps, which are fantastic - they run on castors and you can move them around and direct the light exactly where you want. When my hubby brought mine home, it was painted with cream paint which was really chipped and dirty-looking, so I got some car paint and sprayed it red. My hubby was NOT pleased with me, though, because I did it on the drive outside our garage (at our old house) without putting any protection down, and he said it looked as if someone had committed a murder on our drive!!! It took months to wear off!

I'll post some more photos as I make progress. However, this takes energy which is in short supply because of my ME, so don't hold your collective breaths!