First off, this was not an impulse decision. When we moved to our current house, the basement was unfinished and we had no plans in making it a studio. In fact, Jill had set up shop in a 10'x8' spare bedroom and that was her workshop for just under two years. It was a tight space when we thought about building out the basement and using a good chunk of it for her studio.
When we decided to go for it, the first thing to do was create a floor layout to see how much room we would use. There were barriers that prevented it from being a totally open floor plan. In fact, there was a kind of separation that would make the studio look like two adjacent rooms.
With the design underway, there were some essential areas we found through research of what we considered successful studios/galleries:
1. Lighting. The studio needed excellent lighting. This would actually encompass a large amount of the research time. There was already one source of natural light coming from the basement doors. We determined on two others: a general recessed light for the room and track lighting for her workspace and wall-mounted artwork.
The track lighting needed to be as close to natural as possible. This is where a lot of time and energy studying the types of products out there and what spectrum was best. In the end, we selected SOLUX as the product, using their 3500 Kelvin lamps as they were above incandescent and below the 5000 Kelvin bluer light. These bulbs have a very nice shelf life and the light and fixtures present the artwork extremely well.
3. Water Basin. What artist could forget the need for a water basin. Fortunately, the basement had a rough-out for a bathroom out of the way. We were able to get a basin installed in a not-so-conspicuous location. I bet Jill is grateful to have this nearby. This was just a Home Depot product.
4. Large Storage Closet. A must to manage all the supplies and miscellaneous collection of frames, artwork, and other needs. This room measures roughly 7'x7'.
5. Stained Concrete Floor. This was another decision that took a little time. initially, we looked at subflooring the room, but it had two issues. The first was flooding. If this ever happened, the repair work would be considerable. Second, the room height would take about a 4 inch cut and it seemed important to keep the room as tall and wide as possible. So, we decided to keep the concrete look and stain it. On top of the stain, a polyurethane coating was layered to give it a semi-gloss look.
The General Contractor we hired needed to be able to handle:
1. Electrical for all the recessed and track lighting, as well as several outlets.
2. Mechanical for the air vents
3. Plumbing for the water basin (as well as a bathroom we added at the same time)
4. Construction for the framing and drywall
5. Additionally, he handled all the permits. This was important as Loudoun County can be difficult and I had a nightmare of a time in our previous house in Fairfax County doing a project where I was the General Contractor. I decided not to take on that stress.
6. And, of course, be able to manage his people and keep a respectable schedule, which he did.
The studio took roughly three months to build. We were very pleased with the work. The contractor negotiated a fair price and stayed within budget.
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