House things

[shadesofmauve]

I'm still fretting mightily about lights -- Should they be recessed, track, or tube? How many lumens do I need to paint? Where do I want them? How much of my meager warchest are they going to end up costing me?

Before I dissolve into a little stress puddle, though, I promised to share a floor plan!


(click to embiggen so the text is legible).

I've grayed in the areas where I'm planning on furniture. The easel is positioned to catch the north light during the day time, which should be great -- and helps me not at all at night, which starts at 4 in the afternoon during the winter. That's for acrylic and oil painting (also for panel prep, because it's a fancy easel that lays down horizontally if so needed). The computer area is in a darker corner, with a few feet of safe zone between fragile equipment and ground zero for oil paint* -- that's computer, printer (assuming I ever fix it or buy a new one), scanner-I-don't-own-yet, office-y stuff, etc. The drawing areas -- which would also be for watercolor and inking -- are harder to figure out, mostly because I'm not sure which furniture I'll use. I have a small wooden drafting table, and dad has offered me his big old metal one (which is what I learned to draft on). I also have a lightbox (courtesy Westrider/Tinierpurplefishes!) that'd love a semi-permanent home somewhere. And then there has to be some kind of Thing for holding inks and pencils and colored pencils and water colors and... er... have I ever mentioned on this journal that I have a really hard time focusing on only one medium?

Anyhow, that's the studio.

This past weekend I did almost nothing on the studio, and instead finished a kitchen project. It was a very small project (cut board, paint board, mount board), but I took it from "Hey, I need that!" to "finished" in a week, which is doing pretty damn well for me. Behold: a shelf!



Yes, my kitchen is actually that red. It's more overwhelming in the photo than in actuality because the phone camera really picks up the reflected reds... and because Erik happened to be using the red dutch oven. And I have a red teakettle. And towels. :P The other walls have white cabinets, which breaks it up a bit.

If I had the time and energy, I might paint an 18" strip behind the shelf the same white, to make the oils and vinegars and things pop -- but I'm really hoping to tear down that wall with a sledgehammer in the next five years, so I don't care that much. :P

On the right you can just about see the pot rack, which was my invention and one I keep shamelessly patting myself on the back over god damn it sometimes I can be brilliant. A couple of eye bolts are mounted in the studs with a chain slung between 'em, and the pots hang on S-hooks. About $20 at the hardware store for vastly increased storage space, right where you can get it. It was one of the first things I installed in the house. I'd come up with the idea back in the apartment, where I had even less space, and it made it much more workable.

Anyhow, that's two sections of my house. Who knows what you'll see next -- messy bedrooms? Bathroom mold? It could be anything!

*Oil paint travels. You can never actually keep the oils where they belong, you can only try, and sigh philosophically when you sit in wet paint. That's the downside of taking days to fully dry.

Comments

[jeliza]

I don't know if this will help, but my current Thing for holding stuff from too many media is this tall, really skinny drawer thing from Ikea:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50192822/
It's definitely on the expensive side, but *so useful.* At least for my habits. :)

[t-c-da.livejournal.com]

We had a red kitchen of that hue in our last house. The chippie that crafted the kitchen furniture which had the red on all the cupboard doors was a little wary of doing it. The walls were papered with a similar paper to that in the local branch of the golden arches (we got it first!) which was a little gold on mostly white.

Hey, but I like the chain for hanging the pots on - dead simple yet highly flexible to the requirements de jour.. Don't know what you used for the "S" hooks, but in our house it would be No 8 Fencing Wire!

[coffeejunkie.livejournal.com]

My lighting vote is for track lighting. With the right kind and placed in the right areas, you can adjust the lights to your needs better than most other kinds of lighting.

[shadesofmauve]

Ooh! Something like that would probably do the trick! Have to actually finish the space before considering furniture, but many shallow drawers is good, as is 'height you can reach from a drafting table.'

It's not even that expensive, in terms of 'thing with many drawers.' The options generally seem to be "Over $100" or "piece of plastic shit that'll work for a week and then make you curse as long as you have it."

My current storage is a variety of things I can pick up and move, since I've never had a studio. Tackle box of acrylics, giant tub of oil Stuff, tea tin of colored pencils... it all works, but it's certainly not ideal. And I admit, I get really excited about organizing, especially when I get to organize art supplies. It's like the left brain and the right brain get to go out to a party.

[shadesofmauve]

hehehe, yes, I think the people who look at you as if you were quite mad is one of the benefits of that color of red, really!

The S hooks are actually sold as S hooks. I did stick them in a vice and crunch one end down more, though -- otherwise (as I learned in the version 1.0, at my apartment) sometimes when you lift a pan off the chain, released from the tension, FLINGS the hook into the air. :P Fencing wire might actually work better, there -- you could wrap or crimp it all the way 'round the chain.

[shadesofmauve]

That's the bit I like about track lighting. The bit that worries me is that it's usually more a spot than a flood -- which may be controllable with bulbs; I'm not sure. Also, I'm not sure whether it illuminates *enough*.

Flourescent tube fixtures are ugly, but maaaan, they're bright...

[coffeejunkie.livejournal.com]

The fairly nice thing about light is that you can always add to it in other ways (floor lamps and such) if you find that it isn't quite right.

Fluorescent lights can be recessed into the ceiling, right? My parents have a fluorescent tube fixture in their kitchen that looks pretty good. The people who installed it added some nice wood around the ugliness.

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Yay, floor plan!

I'm kind of envious of your kitchen shelf and pot rack and knife magnet. I don't have the wall space for those.

[shadesofmauve]

Wall space is what saves me in this kitchen -- there's so little counter space, and it's so awkward, that I need all the help I can get. Basically there's that little bit you see near the stove, something a few inches wider directly across from it, and then the sink area counters... which have one section of weirdly deep cabinet so you can't reach the stuff in the back!

But I have plans, I tell you! PLANS!

[shadesofmauve]

Oh, and I share the love of floorplans, even if I'm a little tired of looking at this one. :P I added the little squiggle-me just for you! For scale, y'know. :P

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Yay, PLANS!

[tersa.livejournal.com]

I noticed and deeply admired the squiggle you--it's so cute. That you added it JUST FOR ME makes me go 'awwww!' and *warm fuzzies* :)

[t-c-da.livejournal.com]

I'm don't know about your territory, but down here one can buy drop in LED replacements for Flouro tubes. Might be worth a look just to be aware of what's possible.

http://www.verbatimlighting.com.au/en_AU/products/products/led-tubes/64356/t8-tube-g13-1200mm-18w-1950lm-5700k-cw

[sinvraal.livejournal.com]

KITCHEN OF THE DAMNED

Does it grant a +5 to any attempt to cook things like spaghetti sauce?


Sorry, I'm no help whatsoever. It's one of those nights.

[shadesofmauve]

Oooh! Looks like they exist here, though not quite in the right CRI range yet. It certainly makes fluorescent more appealing to think that I could replace 'em with LEDs as they go out (it seems safe to assume that there'll be better LED options on the market over the next couple of years).

[shadesofmauve]

No, but it does make the perception DC to detect it splattered on things considerably harder, which makes it easier to pass my cleaning 'Bluff' check.

[t-c-da.livejournal.com]

(attempt
2: LJ seems to have changed how they process comment posting and it
breaks/hangs in my NoScript'd Firefox)

I'm fairly sure the rate of change in LED lighting is accelerating quite
markedly, at least down here...

At the weekend (when we celebrated a little milestone - see FB) I was
browsing the local hardware store as one does, and noticed some flat LED
substitutes/replacements for down lights. My google-fu fails to find
them so I'll have to pay better attention next weekend when I'll almost
certainly have to go back for more something for the back yard...

[sinvraal.livejournal.com]

"My spaghetti sauce exploded."

"I can't tell..."

"Mission accomplished."

[shadesofmauve]

Since I've been reading so much about lights, I read someone saying they really loved brighter, cooler light in their white kitchen, because OMG you can see ALL THE GRIME! And it confused me, because I want the opposite of that.

[shadesofmauve]

I'd blame LJ, today -- it seems to be having some serious problems.

I'm afraid I couldn't see your milestone -- FB's organization has stumped me. I did enjoy looking at your yard pictures, though!

I've seen the little flat guys! I'm not sure what they're called, but I know what you mean -- kind of a disc/puck sorta thing.