Nov 5, 2007

Making a home art studio

The photo above shows the raw lumber I ordered to setup a home art studio.

While I was looking for a full time studio, I decided to setup a home studio in my apartment. The apartment is a rental, with clean walls / floors, so we installed some temporary walls and floors in one room, to make a usable studio and avoid ruining the building fabric. The room is 8' x 14', with two North-facing windows, which is tiny for a studio, but it's a good stop-gap.

Ordering the wood was a NY experience. I went to the folks at Metropolitan lumber on Spring Street, explained my needs, said it had to be under $300. They obliged.

An hour later four sheets of 4x8x.5 ply, three sheets of Masonite hardboard, and five 2x4s were hand delivered to our 3rd floor walkup.

Here you can see it being assembled:

The first thing I did was put down a large dropcloth on the floor (to absorb any liquid / paint that gets through the cracks in the masonite). Then I put the three 4x8 masonite sheets on top of the dropcloth, attaching them to each other using some Gorilla tape on their undersides.

I screwed five 2x4x8 posts against the original walls, with one large bolt per post, so when they are removed they won't leave a big mark.

Next, I screwed the 4x8 ply sheets in place against the 2x4 posts. Applied some jointing compound and paint - and its done:

Update: I've since found a larger space, but having somewhere at home too comes in super-handy.

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