On Saturday, with Paul’s help, I got stuck into moving furniture in my renamed ‘studio’. Being the hopeless optimist that I am, I planned for it to be done by lunch. Not a chance. It was done by dinner, though. Except for a few things I couldn’t find a place for.

Rearranging a room is a bit like pulling apart machinery and putting it back again – there’s always a leftover part that doesn’t seem to fit any more. But so long as the machine still works…

I don’t know yet if the studio ‘works’, but it all mostly fell into place the way I planned. The end of the room is now a good space for making art. The table fit snugly next to the black shelving. I found a frame that had once held a print, until it fell off the wall and the glass shattered, and Paul says he has a piece of canite that should fit so I can have a inspiration board behind the table. And I want to put up a rack above it, for pegging things up to dry.

Because the drawing board now blocks the window, I was able to open up the blind behind, which made the room brighter. (I’ve kept it closed because occasionally an old guy would appear in the property behind ours, and stand there grinning at me. Creepy. I haven’t seen him for ages, though, and in a year or two the trees I planted along the back fence will be tall enough to block the view.)

Before I started the reshuffle, while I was waiting for Paul to come up and help me, I had a flash of inspiration and drew another floor plan that would more effectively divide the studio into two areas, one for work, one for art & craft.

But it involved moving everything, and I really couldn’t face that. So I’m calling it Stage 2, which may happen in about six months. By then the sunlight coming through behind the drawing board will be getting too hot, and it’ll be good to move it sideways against the wall. And I’ll be finishing one work project and starting another, so it’ll be a good time for changing my work desk position.