Saturday, 25 June 2011

Starting at the very beginning: project desk

Before you can start to be creative, you need a space to do it in, right? I have a desk which has just served as a clutter magnet for the last four years since I last used it as a student. The poor thing has been so neglected, it practically cried tears of joy when it found out I intended to clear it out, give it a bit of TLC, fill it with lovely things, and then actually use it!

Here is how my poor little desk used to look:


The wall has also attracted random junk - postcards, fliers, photos, cards, you name it I've blu-tacked it to the wall. It's been like this for years, these things are barely sentimental any more!


A couple of days later, and here is the space now. It's been re-vamped and filled with all of the creative tools and materials I could possibly fit in:


And the wall got some attention too, all the old rubbish being scaled back and cut down to just the things I think are beautiful or inspiring, and a couple of bits of my artwork:


I also cleared out my desk tidy. This might not sound like a big job, but I had three pencil cases and a desk tidy filled with pens of many varieties, and I laid them all out on the desk and weeded out the broken or empty ones and organised them into different types. The regular pens, fountain pens, pencils and micro-pencils made it into the desk tidy. The magazine box has folders I keep my work in, and whichever rough writing pad I have on the go:


My crochet bag doesn't have a home yet. I only just nominated it as a crochet bag! It's just a bog-standard washbag from Boots which came in a set of three - the other two are both red but it was this one I bought the set for as I thought the pattern was really pretty:


The top drawer now has functional stationery, including my long ruler, calculator and DL envelopes. The boring, officey stuff that everyone needs now and again:


I like this drawer. It has my A5 and A4 sketchbooks and pads, and my most prized colouring materials: a set of watercolour pencils and some brushes, a 36 pack of Crayola pencils, and my beloved Staedtler sets:


This is my notebook and writing drawer. It has some of my many beautiful (and as yet unused in some cases!) notebooks, a project book and some old notes and plans:


This shelf has my cameras, sewing box and correspondence box:


I have a few art box style sets with sketching materials, watercolours, oil paints and charcoal. I also have my more used beautiful notebooks for Japanese, poetry, writing and (in the case of the gorgeous brown one) admiring!


Compartmentalised storage! I love it. One of the blue ones currently contains the overspill of pens and coloured pencils and the clear one is empty right now but I intend to put some card-making paraphernalia in it. Unless I think of something else in the meantime! I also have my address book on here, which is handy:


I was really excited to start the clear out and be able to use my desk. It's given me the chance to see where the gaps are in things I need and also to get rid of a fair bit of junk. I've already spent a happy couple of hours setting up this blog while sitting at it! And I hope that now I have a lovely area to work in there'll be plenty more coming for me to put on it.

2 comments:

  1. A good de-clutter clears your mind. I feel so ashamed now I see how clean your space is, my sewing station is hideous!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Heh, it won't stay this tidy for long! I am like a whirlwind of chaos. It has definitely cleared my mind, I feel like ideas are flowing now!

    Thank you very much for your comment!

    ReplyDelete

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