This post has been a long time coming, but with a recent mass cleaning and some inspiring lighting I wanted to get it out of the way.

When we moved into our house in Southeast Portland in March of 2007, one of the features we were most excited about was the finished attic space. We knew it would make a perfect home studio for Sarah and I. It was a bit of a blank canvas to create a custom environment suited to our prospective hobbies.

Even though this process took place over two years ago, I’ve always wanted to share the result, as well as the “design” process, even though this was a small personal project.

BEFORE
I had a home-made but impractical door-desk on sawhorses and my old iMac. The space itself is lit by two North-facing skylights. A built-in bookshelf near the stairs set the theme of finding efficient storage solutions for this limited space.

Our requirements for the studio:

• One desk area for each person
• A separate “meeting” area with table and chairs that can serve as a sewing station for Sarah
• Storage for Sarah’s fabric in her antique green drawers
• Location for my Yamaha keyboard
• Placement for my large Epson printer
• As much extra storage as possible

DESIGN PROCESS

We figured we only really had one shot at getting it right. The space could quickly become cramped with too much in it, or awkward if everything didn’t fit just right. So I decided that as part of the process I would use Sketchup to refine the design as we went.

We started by measuring the room as accurately as possible, just using a tape measure. There was some very basic trigonometry for the angled roof, made easier through Sketchup to get the volume of the space.

Next we just started to find items in the Ikea catalog that we thought might work. I would just plug in the overall dimensions, and then roughly model in any additional detail as needed.

We considered keeping the door-desk to use jointly as a work table but it didn’t seem to fit. Although we loved this one-of-a-kind table, it didn’t really fit well into the space and had to go to a new home. Amazingly, that new home ended up being right down the street at a small company whose entire office decor was doors.

Then we started thinking we could have separate L-shaped desks which would give each of us a “digital” and “analog” area on our workspace. But, this option unfairly made one person sit in the corner away from the skylights. We did find a round white table that provided a nice extra bit of work surface for big projects.

Things really got interesting when we found a few additional items from Ikea. The Alex Drawers were perfect for the numerous flat storage needs we had. And they provided a lot of extra top surface area too.

The glass countertops fit almost across the entire length of the room under the skylights. Perfect for natural light during the day. We found these storage stands (technically table legs for a different table surface) for under-desk storage. A shelf above each desk would create some additional storage.

We created a shopping list right from our SketchUp components. This was several months before the Portland Ikea opened (if you can believe it), so we were off to Seattle to pick up everything (and then some).

AFTER

Space for two

Storage areas and room for Sarah’s serger.

The design library and Sarah’s dress form.

The reading nook, with long-term storage consisting of another Ikea unit and some antique crates from Sarah’s grandparents.

It originally took about a solid week of after-work unboxing and assembling to get everything in its place. But we love continuing to improve the studio for our numerous projects.