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    Building a resource library in your living room

    By Charlotte Bell
    Jan 17, '06 11:15 PM EST

    If you're like me, you need materials for your projects - usually in the middle of the night when your school's resource library is closed Because I got tired of the paltry offerings of our resource library, I started my own student-sized resource collection in the corner of my living room.

    Here's what I've done (and some tips) without spending much money:

  • I cleared out and repurposed a couple of bookshelves (and made a nice book donation to my local library). You can find cheap shelves at Staples or you may luck out and find some on the street on garbage day. Stackable crates and boards on cement blocks work too - use whatever is cheap and available.


  • I positioned these shelves to create a nook, which became my “studio,” and hung some fabric on the back of the shelves to make them look a little less junky from the rest of the living room.


  • I outfitted my shelves with cheap folding cardboard magazine files to hold product literature and magazines, vaguely grouped by categories. If you have deeper pockets, you can get some better looking and more durable plastic or metal magazine files at Staples or The Container Store.


  • My samples are sorted into cardboard boxes, again by category - textiles, sustainable textiles, glass, flooring, wood, metals, etc. The cardboard boxes are an inelegant but free solution. Having run out of shelf space, I tucked these boxes under my drafting table (found for $10 at a yard sale). Again, if you can afford it, you could find something more attractive than cardboard boxes.


  • My T-squares, long straightedges, and rolls of bumwad are stored upright in a cardboard wine box with the dividers intact. Not elegant, but servicable.


  • Realizing that a set of flat map drawers was way over my head, I purchased two cardboard flat storage boxes from The Container Store. At 3″ deep, they slide under my sofa and hold my drawings.


  • Storing presentation boards is a problem. For a while I could slip them behind my stereo speakers, but now there are too many of them, so they are in the way.


  • When I'm ready to select materials for a project, I can quickly pull out all this stuff, find what I need, and start to play. If I need something new, I order samples directly from the manufacturers or through Tectonic Studio.



 
  • 1 Comment

  • Alexander Jack

    Interesting...give us some pixs.

    Jan 21, 06 3:10 pm  · 
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