I made some headway this week on the cabinets. I made a dumb mistake when I cut the doors. I did not take into consideration the extra thickness of the particleboard that I was as a backing when it came to the hinges. When I first made the prototype doors I had to cutout space for the hinges to fit. The second version had a particleboard backing for extra support. The backing had a cut out for the hinges to fit in. It tuned out the backing was thick enough to accommodate the hinges without need to remove material from the homasote. However, I did 10 doors the wrong and did not want to remake them.

 I tried to turn this into a design opportunity though. I wanted to get rid of the cut outs but did not want to re-cut all new doors, waste of material. So I decided to fill the holes with .5 inch plywood I got from the school store. I think it turned out well. The contrast of the wood and homasote is kind of nice and a little different a little thing to see in the studio when you look around. I still have to either paint the doors or cover them in fabric.  We really don’t want to have the cabinets look like homasote if possible.  Now I need to make the other 9 doors and put them up.    

           An almost done door

Door with MDF backing for support and hold the hinges 

            As obvious as it sounds I am always impressed by how much light can change the feel of a  room. The new studio went through a lot of changes in its life before we got it and it has some interesting charter.  At some point a drop ceiling was put in, but not across the whole ceiling. The large windows had to be built around and the drop ceiling could not go all the way the the wall. 

These windows also are below ground level looking at a concrete pit, cutting down on the amount of light coming into the space. This is especially true in the winter so the studio relies on artificial light.     We identified improved lighting as a necessary feature in the studio.

           The odd shape of the space actually gave us the opportunity to install "hidden" florescent bulbs for indirect lighting. This simple row of lights has really improved the studio. It is not so much about being able to see work, but the whole space does not feel so dark. Making the studio feel better is about productivity and getting people to work in the same space. If people feel comfortable, they will want to work there. If they want to work in the same area  random positive interactions will happen.    

    One of the installed lights

           

         Another little trick we have be working on is a scale layout of the room. We have been able to move cut-outs of desks and furniture around the space to see what different layouts would look like. 

    Scale layout of the space