A quick glimpse at my work space this morning. I have it divided up into areas for painting, storage, shipping. I use this work bench to trim, mat, frame and package my paintings for display or shipping. AND I made it myself (almost)! And it is so simple and not very expensive so I thought I would share with you.
I found these premade workbenches at Harbor Freight and they go on sale regularly. Here is a link where they are 159 dollars. They are five feet long but only a little over 20 inches deep. I loved them but some of my paintings are larger than that and of course the matting and boxes are larger still, so I bought two of these.
They come in a box and you must assemble, but not too difficult, and besides my boys having to carry them in for me (they are VERY heavy and awkward) I put the rest together myself. I then used two c-clamps to hook the benches together so they wouldn't shift. Here is the link for the benches:
They were very solid when I put them together, and when you buy two, there are 8 drawers, 4 on each side, perfect for pencils, tape, erasers, matting supplies. There are shelves below which are perfect for storing binders, art books and magazines, and shipping supplies.
The top is made of a beautiful hardwood but I wanted to use it for cutting paper and mats, and so I was looking for a self healing mat to place on top, and found a size that fits the two benches perfectly, like it was made to fit. Here is a link to one which is 40 by 60 inches at 199 dollars, I bought mine on eBay a few years ago for 150 dollars, so shop around to see if you can find one at a good price:
Here are some photos let me know if you have any questions. The only way it could work better is if it had wheels, I will have to work on that :)
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| My Matting Workbench in my Art Studio |
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| Art Workbench with 8 drawers and two shelves for storage of supplies. |
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| Art Workbench with 40 by 60 workspace with self healing cutting mat. |
Very cool, Maria! I have a Harbor Freight near me, and I love the idea- thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteYou are going to love it :) I especially love cutting on it and not worrying about the table underneath, I use it every day Sheryl!
DeleteMaria, this is an awesome idea. We buy all kinds of things from Harbor Freight. Thanks for the terrific idea. Always cool to get peeks into where favorite artist do their thing.
ReplyDeleteI am going to try to post more tips and my work process, so hard to find the time to do everything I have going on in my brain!
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