My friend's mother has this wonderful studio on her farm. I've always wanted a small collection of rooms like this in which to write and read. If you could design a set of rooms like this what would you put in there? I'll start: bookshelves, fireplace, record collection, map of the world, standing desk, guitars, bottles of ink, fountain pens, stationery, a gross of pencils, antique typewriters.
There would be a space for reading books that would be separate from the space for reading papers which would be separate from the writing spaces. There would be two writing spaces. One for handwriting letters another for work writing.
Oh and a chess set with weighted pieces, candles, a wall of pictures, huge chalk board....
That's my incomplete list and there are many more questions to be figured out. For example: would there be a space for company, or would it be a solitary place?
There would be a space for reading books that would be separate from the space for reading papers which would be separate from the writing spaces. There would be two writing spaces. One for handwriting letters another for work writing.
Oh and a chess set with weighted pieces, candles, a wall of pictures, huge chalk board....
That's my incomplete list and there are many more questions to be figured out. For example: would there be a space for company, or would it be a solitary place?
As you're a journalist, you may wish to spell stationery correctly.
I like to think of it as a typo.
I'd add a large couch (who doesn't feel more creative after a power nap?), simple coffee maker and an iPod dock. And I'd say it's nor a place to entertain. More solitary. I'm envious just thinking about it.
computer, cigarettes, a man, and too much food!
A table and two straight chairs (for writing or projects), computer, oriental rung on the floor, toaster over, and a bathroom. And the bookshelves should have a book on birds, flowers, and on trees.
This just kills me, because I have an old, brick, detached garage that's just sitting there, waiting to be turned into a writing studio. It even has a fireplace, because it used to be a park ranger station, back when my neighborhood was municipal parkland. It's way older than the house itself, but in great shape.
I've thought a lot about this, but have never had the money or time to do the work--or so my mantra goes. I can see it clearly:
I'd have a height-adjustable desk for sitting or standing, facing the big south windows. An old Steinway upright on the opposite wall. Composting toilet in the corner. I'd have a pull-up bar to put inversion boots on and hang upside-down. And I think a small couch facing a good-sized movie screen over the fireplace. Behind the couch, projectors for DVDs, tapes, real film. But NO TELEVISION. No phone. No pool, no pets. I aint got no cigarettes. I doubt that the wireless signal from the house would go that far. If not, I'd get a lot more writing done....
Okay, goddammit, I'm gonna do it. Thanks for the kick in the pants.
I would have a wall of bookshelves but not only for books - books and things that inspire me. There'd be a chalkboard and a corkboard with random quotes and photos and items. A nice big desk facing a window and definitely a couch and a rug that invites sitting on the floor.
It would be my space completely. Some guests occasionally but really, my own space to be inspired.
Considering I'm moving into a small one-bedroom space with my fiance soon and my workspace will be a desk next to the TV in the livingroom, just thinking about this imaginary space is a dream.
You need a wet bar and small bathroom so you never have to leave. Mini-fridge is a must at least, but it would be nice to have a small sink to slap water on your face in the middle of the night when your brain slows down. I agree with a wall of bookshelves and two writing areas - one for working and one for those incidentals that never seem to find a final resting place. A futon-type couch/bed for the times your brain actually comes to a stand-still, and to entertain the rare visitor you may be interviewing or impressing. Your laptop should supply all the diversion you'd want for music and news (and Twitter) And a plant.
paint. canvases. music. and a whole starbucks coffee store.
A dog bed and a bowl of water because everything is better w/ a dog sleeping at your feet!
Great ideas here. I'd also like a wall that is an aquarium housing tropical fish. This would have to be maintained by someone else because I will be too busy writing and/or too blissed-out to do it myself.
Something to play Philip Glass music--it's perfect to write to. It massages the appropriate cortex, heightening awareness, without being distractingly melodic.
A large wooden desk with lots of drawers. A powerful mac w/ TWO large flat panel monitors. A small fridge with lots of Dr Pepper. As many bookcases as would fit. Lots of pictures of Carol and the kids. An autographed picture of John Dickerson (ideally, somehow, standing next to Jake Tapper). A portrait of Lincoln. Lots and lots of books, mostly biographies of great men--Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, both Roosevelts, Truman, Eisenhower, Grant, Churchill, Thatcher, Reagan....
A Bible. A copy of Hinds Feet on High Places.
Lots of CDs. Bach, Beethoven, Barber, Vaughan Williams, Brahms, Schubert, Mendelssohn, John Adams (the composer, and the older one of those two).
A picture window looking into the woods (I know, we're supposed to be deciding what to put in our room, but a critical part of our room is the view outside, the world outside our paradigm).
A coffee pot. Lots of creamer. Flavored.
A stack of yellow pads and a cup-full of fine-tip ballpoint pens.
A sketchpad and lots of pencils and kneadable erasors.
And a cat...