Our family has always lived in tiny spaces. Our first apartment: 575 square feet for the both of us, and then we added a tiny human. Our second apartment: 625 square feet, with two tiny humans! In each place, we had to get creative with furniture arranging, shelving, and storage. We've always had to be ruthless in getting rid of the unneeded extras. We've had very little wall space on which to hang artwork or photographs. Until now.
Our latest (rented) space was booked sight unseen, and had its share of interesting quirks and perks. My favorite perk: my home office.
My home office is almost exactly one half of our master bedroom. Almost my entire life, my workspace has existed in our bedroom. It's difficult to maintain boundaries working from home, and so I set up a curtain as a visual and physical reminder that boundaries are healthy and necessary. I'm very much an "out of sight, out of mind," person (which comes from a visual learning style, of course), so having visual reminders is essential in how I process and structure the work.
All around me, you'll find raw materials, and collections of things I've made. I use my collections as an archive of ideas--sketchbooks, designed books, linoleum prints, wedding books, and reference materials are kept close at hand.
For the first time, I've had two desks: one for analog projects, and one for digital. As any hardworking artist can tell you, it makes life so much easier if you can leave your project-in-process out, instead of having to pack things away every single time you work.
But hey, we've made it work in the past. I'm in love with this workspace, and would be sad to leave it, but I know that a fresh space can generate fresh ideas, too.
