The Bling Studio - Constructing the Perfect Work Space

Our homes are our sanctuaries (especially lately!!) and no area is more sacred than the crafting studio...LOL, totally joking, my bedroom is the most sacred by far, but my Bling studio is definitely a source of pride. Having a space to work in is important - but having a dedicated nook with proper organization has been a game changer!

I live in a 600 square foot 2 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment in Mid City, Los Angeles with 1 roommate and 2 cats (Loxley & Jodie Foster). I created my first pieces sitting on my couch. I used my lift top coffee table as a work surface & white plastic serving trays to put my tools and trays of rhinestones so they could be cleared away easily. 

In fact, I was using my couch & coffee table as a work bench all the way up until June of 2019 - so for almost 2 years! There were so many times that I ended up with a kink in my neck or a strain in my back from hunching over for hours in a slightly awkward position. 

I was gifted my work desk by a roommate who didn't want to take his with him when he moved out. It's a super simple 29 inch x 19 inch desk with one drawer which I use for all of my various adhesives, tweezers, gem pick up tools, glue syringes & needle tips, gem trays, & measuring tools, so that they're immediately close at hand. 

On the corner of my desk I have two lamps - one with a florescent light & magnifying glass for super detailed work & one with a smartphone holder & regular light so I can film what I'm working on or listen to podcasts and music while I work. I also hung a lamp above my work space - as much light as possible since most of the time that I'm working well past dark. 

In the corner of my living room, just beside my desk, I put a folding triangle table (it's a triangle when folded, a square when unfolded). Underneath I have a few neatly labeled boxes with things like extra cords, shipping boxes, gift bags, and miscellaneous items that I rarely need to access. 

On top of that triangle table, I placed the perfect corner shelving unit. It's meant for a child's bedroom or play area and it's the perfect fit for both the space & for storing my supplies, materials, patterns, and finished creations.

In between my work desk and the corner table/shelving unit combo is a simple wooden 4 shelf unit with 4 handled drawers. The top drawer is for all of my large sizes of crystals & crystals still in bulk packaging. Next is a drawer for packaging supplies like tissue paper & stickers, one drawer for finished & packaged sets of pasties, and the last is for the silicone self-adhesive nipple covers I use as the base to create the bling pasties. 

Although I'm not always super organized with my space (especially when I'm in the middle of a project!!), having a space that has the organizational capacity to allow me to have everything in it's place has been a massive help in keeping me on task & my creative juices flowing.