Future Dreams for the Music Studio

For the past few weeks I randomly wake up in the middle of the night with “ideas” for the new house. Sometimes it’s just a brief flash and I fall back asleep immediately…but sometimes it’s more like a slap in the face and I’m wide awake. If it REALLY wakes me up, then I have to spend a minute or two either browsing for more ideas on Pinterest or writing myself a note on the phone to look it up later. The one that occurred to me last night was built-in bookshelves in the music studio. Our current rental house has a few shelves built into the wall above the piano. It is nice to have a place to put the books but it’s not at all practical. Maybe it’s just because I’m short but because I am reaching over the piano I can’t reach above the second shelf and I’m constantly having to move the piano light back and forth to reach around for books.

I’m still not quite sure how I’m going to set up my new space. It will be a little larger than my current studio but in different shape. It’s wider at one end than the other and there are more windows and doors throughout. We’ll also be displaying the beautiful quilt that my mother-in-law made for us in the studio so we’ll need ample room on one wall to give that the space it deserves. It is multi-colored and patterned but the dominant colors are black, red, and cream with hints of blue and brown so it’ll fit in beautifully with the wood instruments and color scheme of the bottom floor. I can’t quite decide where I’m going to put a shelving unit but I’ve definitely decided how I’ll be doing the shelves!

Quilt hanging day!

This photo was taken at our townhouse, on the day the quilt was brought up to us and hung. Thank goodness for tall brothers-in-law who can hang things really high! And for those who don’t know, that is my father-in-law, mother-in-law, Steve (of course), and Dan, my brother-in-law. Oh, and Blu (our previous foster and the Ballas’ adoptee) and Merlin. These were the P.A. days…Pre-Archimedes.

I LOVE that quilt! You won’t believe how many harp fabrics were found for that quilt!

After doing some late night googling, I am planning to order 3 or 4 of the Billy Bookcases from Ikea (found here) and will attempt a DIY project similar to this or this. I love the way both projects turned out. The finished bookshelves definitely don’t look like basic Ikea products. And 3 or 4 of them will give me plenty of space for my music library that is not currently contained in my two file cabinets and all of the other music knick-knacks I have all over the place.

My other Pinterest-inspired idea for the music studio is for wall “art.” For the past 8 years of teaching I’ve saved every recital program and attempted to take at least one photo of each studio recital. The studio recital photos are currently in two large collage style frames along with random photos from my studios but the programs have been safely filed away in my file cabinet. For the past few weeks I’ve been taking a 40% or 50% off coupon to Michael’s each week and purchasing a 9×12 black frame. Once we get settled in the new house I’m going to frame my favorite recital programs. Every couple of years I can change them around, but I’m really excited about having a visual “history” of the studio!

Next post…craft room ideas! 😉