Hang it all!

So what do you do when you want a very workable, hardworking space in a VERY small area?

The Shed of Reality does double and triple duty for me...and then some.  It's a studio, a retreat, a place to entertain, make music, make art, make videos.  It's an escape.  It's a mini-vacation.  It's a place of healing, and a tiny yoga ashram, a room for meditation.  A place for a private chat.  I even put up a friend there overnight once.  As the subtitle of this blog puts it, it's a place called sanity...with a nice cuppa tea and a good book!

With such limited floor space...a bit less than 100 square feet--a whole LOT of stuff climbs the walls.  Book cases, of course, and shelves.  Windowsills hold a lot.  The space between the rafters are used...and here are some of the many ways to hang things up we've pressed into service, some as simple as a nail, some wonderful finds from the thrift store...

Love the antique coat or hat hanger...it works great for cups and small pots in the kitchen corner.

A sturdy hand-forged hook holds a tea towel, a small skillet and the yellow teapot my sis gave me 40 years ago...

Joseph created the broom hanger...and a smaller broom hangs from a nail to the right--along with my Audubon Society bird call! 

This cool double hanger was in an old armoire, hidden from sight.  I've got two more to put up somewhere...

A handy double hook matches those in the closet of my 100 year old house...it was a gift from a friend.

Nails work just fine...this is the dustpan that hangs on the wall, below a window.

Shaker pegs hold music CDs in a basket and my old tambourine... the shelf above holds odds and ends.

This end of the Shaker peg shelf is over my desk, and holds necessary art supplies

Push pins still work, and so do cork boards!

A hand forged nail is strong enough to hold a willow magazine rack full of sketchbooks and watercolor blocks.

A cup hook holds the lightweight Japanese lantern...

Yep, another nail holds the dishpan...

Even the doorknobs are pressed into service, keeping the floor relatively clear for foot traffic!

It all works, and is very flexible...I can always hang something different wherever I decide to, or put up another nail--the fact that we used thin wooden underflooring left over from another project instead of drywall makes putting more nails up a piece of cake!

Oh yeah, and here's the storage between the rafters over the big French door.  I put stuff up there I don't need often, because I have to climb up on a stool to reach it.

I'm still planning more shelves and such, but this is a good start after a year's hard use...

Dealing with VERY small spaces--this is also one of our permanent tabs!

When You Only Have 10' x 10' of Floorspace or Less–Start Climbing the Walls! 

(tips on dealing with small spaces)

Several people have commented to me that this space would be too small for them, that it felt cramped, that their bathroom was larger than that...and to each his own!  I've always loved small spaces and spent much of my childhood in little tourist cabins, tents, or hiding out in my own forts under the front porch or the dining room table! 10 x 10 is what we could afford, what (theoretically!) fit within the City's guidelines as not needing a building permit (wrong), and what I wanted. Sort of an individual, freestanding cubicle--Dilbert would be SO jealous!

So how do you plan for such a small space, and make it work for you? Fortunately I wasn't planning to live there, so didn't have to have plumbing or a furnace...our "real" house is right next door.  Here are some of our strategies:


The obvious place for storage is the walls, as most tiny-house fans will agree–even though we have big French doors, a regular door on the North, and two windows, we still have a fair amount of wall space. I purposely designed the shed with no openings on the south, both for privacy (neighbors and a small state highway 3 doors down) and for storage space. Of course, floor to ceiling shelves on that wall (not as deep as many bookshelves, at 8") hold a lot of books, art supplies, coffee and teapot and more, with rectangular baskets for things that are better out of sight. (We left the bottom shelf about 12 inches from the floor and my bedroll/yoga mat fits under there along with a small footstool and the wastebasket. No extra floor space needed!)

The desk, studio lighting, and kitchen area fit on that wall too.

 
I planned exposed rafters, which give us a great place to hang things so they’re handy as well as up off the floor. Where the rafters meet the walls there are a series of small cubbies–my husband built a narrow shelf to extend that space so lots of books, art supplies and miscellaneous things can be stored there.

 

 Hangups:

Joseph also put Shaker pegs below this shelf, to hold drafting tools, templates, scissors, T-square, and my tambourine and jacket, at the moment. A vintage clothes hanger with two types of hooks holds cups and small pots near my hot plate–all I need for coffee, tea, or soup in this small space.

Three small cubbies are wall-mounted hold other small items–more art supplies, microscope, matches, whatever. Two are above the desk, and one is by the North door.

An old magazine rack holds catalogs and watercolor blocks; the cubby is a gift from a friend.  You can see templates and a ruler hanging from a nail, and more goodies between the rafters and on the windowsill...and OFF the floor.

The broom, which takes less space than about any kind of cleaning tool, hangs from a vintage style hanger made from a board and two wooden spools.

Double-duty furniture and accoutrements work too. I found a great little step stool that lets me reach the higher rafter-storage shelves over the French doors; it’s sturdy and the top is hinged for storage. It holds mosquito coils, dustrag, window cleaner, extra matches, incense or whatever–all the unsightly-but-necessary stuff that you don’t want out on the shelves!

Sure, it was empty THEN...full, now!

Folding furniture is a great solution to limited floor space, allowing for a great deal of versatility–we have two camp chairs and a vintage folding chair that fits at my desk. The desk has a moveable drafting surface, so it serves double duty. A small oak TV table is just the right height for a laptop, when I need it (the desk is a bit too high.) A tabletop can hinge to the wall and fold away when it’s not needed. Even my easel is a small folding one–when it’s not in use it fits snugly between the desk and the wall.

The top will go up to accommodate larger paintings...

Folded up it takes almost no space...

The camp chair still folds, but it's a lot more comfortable now...

Of course I also planned for outdoor storage–the shed has its own mini-shed attached at one side for construction equipment, BBQ, charcoal, tools–you name it. (Right now it still has a lot of the construction stuff.)

You can store things under the building, too. That’s where extra wood is...

When you're planning on a small space, you have to think about what you REALLY need–some things, I’ll admit, as an artist, are there just because they please me aesthetically. But hey, that’s a need, too.