Dysfunctional Planner

We creatives need space

Carving out a space that is all yours is so important. We are lucky our house has three bedrooms. Gav is a contractor so needs his office, he also paints Warhammer soldiers and plays a lot of computer games so his office is his world really.

He loves it.

I didn’t begrudge him because when I do my illustrations I normally just paint in the front room. Put this is getting too much. Marie kondo or just logical thinking means that this is wrong. Everything should be in it own place.

Everything should stay in its home.

So maybe its time for me to carve out a creative place for myself.

I had an idea to turn my spare bedroom into a creative place. I had a clear vision of shelves and my school desk as it has storage. We bought a grey sofa bed which is huge but suits the room.

When we first moved in I wanted to go crazy in the room. But when you have a space that is yours it hard to decide what you actually want. Gav gave me free reign so I went to the paint shop certain that I was going to paint the fire place a lovely lemon.

Yeah that didn’t happen.

Gav initially wanted this as his games room so we now have a large tv over the fire place. It may have to go but that is another conversation.

This fireplace is the absolute prettiest fireplace. We are lucky we have four original fire places in our home.

I have been having a bit of a clear out- plastic bin bags in toe. I started by removing all art materials from the bedroom. There is a lot. I have a drawer just for watercolour. I have papers stashed all over the house and pens and pencils everywhere. But can we ever find a pen.

Nope.

Adios mess

Because I am so dysfunctional, I love to organise but no system is ever right mainly because I don’t follow through with it. And it is all about the follow through and maintaining rather than the first burst of effort.

So I have been through. Art books are banished from the bedroom, when I am done all we will have will be clothes and bedding. And a few bedside books. Everything else needs to adios back to its rightful place.

Organising and routines

We all have our routines. What we like to do in the morning.

Me I am a shower, skincare, dress, walk the dog, out the door type of person. Rather than a leisurely get up get ready (that’s what Sundays are for) I prefer to eat at work (my sometimes breakfast) because I am not hungry first thing.

Gav is the opposite. He loves to relax in the mornings.

So I need to organise top to bottom in my small but very full house. Also we are buying lots of bits for the wedding and rather than forget about them it will be best to store them in the attic till needed. I have a cute a5 clip board with whats up there on it!

I know I am the biggest looser.

A space that’s all mine

So having a space for myself is ideal.

When I painted the fireplace I realised that the walls were cream and above the picture rail was white. Grrr.

Gav thinks cream is fine. I find it too fussy so I painted the wall by the window white. It’s a fairly dark room and need more light!

I bought my shelves from Funky Chunky Furniture, they are great and send you samples so you can match the wood. They are floating shelves so no brackets. If you have a Victorian house you will know that sometimes the wall aren’t straight. So I chose a slightly smaller shelf so they really float.

My father in Law and brother in law ( to be) put them up for me. They are heavy and awkward but gorgeous now that they are up! I love them. They match the picture rail woodwork.

I wanted them high enough so I can put my items that inspire me as well as my brushes and non lightfast bits. Everything means something to me. I have a few wooden crates that I will put my art materials in them away for the light.

Plant babies

This is a dark room but it is also the warmest! So we need to be careful with the plants and paints.

I have three plants in here. A money plant that I have propagated ( this is my 3rd one from the same plant yay) a Venus flytrap that is on her last legs… I think she can live for a few more weeks so I thought a warmer room with more sunlight may chest her up!

I love my plants.

Then I have my cactus, I bought it I the next sale a year ago for 50p I bought 15 and 7 survived, this is 6/7 he is a very sturdy happy plant who has been in the dark a while and seems to like it in this shady corner. Gav bought me this science plant jar and 6/7 loves it! Perfect amount of draining for him too!

Results

So this is my space a place just for me. Frank and Manhattan with occasionally join me in this room but it is make just for me. I need to paint the rest of the walls and get some more storage for my art materials so this place works for me.

Everything I love deserves it’s own home. I am so glad I started this project I just need to buy a new chair and start using it.

It is so therapeutic to clean and organise and be slightly less dysfunctional!

I hope you enjoyed. Here is the room before we owned the house!

Thank you for reading.