My New ARTHaven–Free-Standing Storage

My second of two posts for today. Some more work was done in my new ARTHaven. Chris has assembled the last remaining section of my big black shelving unit – I had gradually reduced this from three sections to one, and I gave the two redundant sections to Wonderwoman, my home help. It’s not the most beautiful object in the world, but it’s strong, large and functional! I am putting the free-standing storage against the dividing wall between my ARTHaven and the office, so you don’t immediately see it until you are actually in the room.

Looking at this, I realised that I had never painted the outside of one panel, but this doesn’t matter because it will be covered by the tall bookcase.

The tall black bookcase, which is part of my black office furniture suite, happens to be exactly the same width as the depth of the black shelving unit, so I have decided to put it in the same position as it was in our present house. The black unit is pretty scuffed and scruffy looking, and I shall probably touch it up with more black paint before I fill it. If you look carefully, you can see one of two diagonal braces that Chris has attached to the back of the unit to stabilise it – when there was more than one section it maintained its square shape. The unit to the left is one that the previous owner left behind in the bathroom. The cupboards contain shelves, as well as it having open shelves.

Amongst my parents’ furniture in storage is a music cabinet which I was planning to put along this wall, between the old bathroom unit and my black shelves, but there isn’t room for it, unfortunately – the bookcase can’t be right up against  the doorway because with the curved end of the new work surface on the other side, there will not be sufficient space to access the room. With it set back a bit, the access is not compromised, and there is also a small space remaining to the left of the old bathroom unit, which I had planned for storing my tall cardboard boxes containing long items like loom bits, tripods, easels, etc. The music cabinet is quite an attractive piece of furniture with cabriole legs and a series of fairly shallow drawers with drop-down fronts, and I measured this before it went into store and determined that my 12 x 12 papers will fit nicely in the drawers. I’m annoyed that it won’t fit in my ARTHaven, but it will go quite nicely on the landing.

Above the free-standing storage there will be a deep shelf the full length of the wall, the height being determined by the old bathroom unit, which is the tallest piece. This shelf will be used for storing large flat things like mount board, cutting mats, etc.

This final wall of my ARTHaven is not beautiful like the rest of the room, but merely functional! It will provide storage for my more bulky items, and things that don’t get used very often, or which don’t immediately fit into a designated work area.

Andy went shopping today and bought some further shelves to go between the two wall units on the further wall of my ARTHaven, should I require more storage in that area, and some brackets for the deep shelf, and for additional shelves in the office section for my ring binders and lever arch files etc.

All in all, I shall have plenty of storage.

In addition to assembling the black unit and arranging the free-standing storage, Chris also fixed up my new shabby chic shelving unit that I bought on Ebay, over the blocked-up fireplace. This will be my display area, for recently-completed pieces, and work by other people. I have got some beautiful miniature easels for displaying small pieces. This area will be changed frequently, and will be the focal point of the room.

If you look very carefully, you will see some items that weren’t there before! Bottom left in the picture is my length of white guttering that I bought months ago for my old ARTHaven and never got round to using – this is going to be cut down and mounted under my main work area as a ruler store.

Above this on the shelf in the wall unit, the small black object is my new gooseneck camera clamp. I have tried clamping this onto the shelf above the main work area, with the gooseneck pointing vertically down, and I think with the camera attached, this will be a good height above the work surface for my video camera. I shall have to experiment but I think with the zoom it may be OK.

Beyond the fireplace, on the work surface, is my sewing machine! This was the first thing I brought in. I can’t bring a lot of stuff in yet, because Tim will need room to connect the new power points to the ring main, and he’ll make a bit of dust installing the new spotlights over the work surfaces (six in all) with LED bulbs. He brought over a sample today – very neat and small, and the LED bulbs, although more expensive than other types, are extremely cheap to run, and give a very bright, clear, blue-white light which will be great for colour accuracy and photography.

On the original shelves above the sewing machine, the screwed up fabric is a curtain which will eventually be removed. On the shelf below, on the left, is a Really Useful Box containing decorative yarns. This corner, going right round to the further end on the right, is the area of my room which will be dedicated to sewing, textiles and fibre – my “clean” work area!

It won’t be long now before I can start bringing things in, and also into the office, once the additional shelves have gone up in there, and the power points have been installed. Watch this space! It’s starting to get really exciting!