I’m pretty excited about this post—it’s crazy long overdue, and one of my most requested posts ever! Over the years I’ve had tons of requests to see my studio and how I store my ingredients, and to be honest… up until recently it really wasn’t pretty. Most of my stuff was in a dark, cramped basement, and wasn’t so much organized as scattered around wherever things could fit, with some sorta-kinda ideas of grouping things together wherever possible. However, with my recent move I was given the chance to totally re-build and re-think my studio from scratch. It took about a month, with several trips to IKEA, quite a lot of scouring Kijiji posts, and some help from some very good friends to move my massive slab of marble, but the new Humblebee & Me studio is done and ready for a tour!
Want a video tour as well?
Let’s start with what I use my studio for: most of my making (stove bits happen in the kitchen), and all my photography and filming. All my ingredients live in there (save the ones that live in a corner of my fridge), as does all of my equipment (spatulas, scales, blenders, spoons, etc.) and packaging. So, it’s storage + production, all in one tidy(ish) package!
Because of the filming/photography needs, I kept the room bright. The walls were already white, and I was careful to keep all the shelving white as well. Thankfully this was very easy as IKEA makes pretty much everything in a white version, and it’s often the cheapest colour available! Booyah. The curtains are inexpensive blackout curtains from Wayfair, and they’re black.
I measured the square footage of shelving I was using in my old home, and it came out to a rather astonishing 80ft², or 7.5m². That’s a lot of shelf space (and I’m pretty sure there was more I forgot to account for). Here’s what the new space has:
- 3 IKEA MULIG shelves (17.5ft²/1.63m²)
- 1 2×2 IKEA KALLAX shelving unit (8.7ft²/0.8m²)
- 1 IKEA ALEX drawer unit (15.6ft²/1.45m²)
- 2 doored wardrobe/cupboards I found on Kijiji (19.2ft²/1.8m²)
- 1 bookcase I found on Kijiji (5.9ft²/0.54m²)
- A few hanging baskets from the dollar store (2.3ft²/0.2m²)
- A built in shelf that’s the length of the closet (10ft²/0.9m²)
All in all that’s about 80ft² (7.5m²), of shelving and drawer space—about the same as at the old place. It’s a bit ridiculous, but it works.
Now into the reality of things: how have I organized my stuff, and where does it go? Let’s start with a floor plan to help keep you oriented. Most of my ingredients live on the MULIG shelves; they ended up being perfectly sized. For most things, one shelf held my entire selection of clays/emulsifiers/etc. Click the image to see it large enough to read the text! The what-goes-where is pretty straightforward, but I’ve detailed some of the more expand-upon-able stuff below the floor plan.
I got the little dividing containers from Kijiji, but later saw them at Dollarama.
Essential & Fragrance Oils
These are stored in drawers; the ALEX unit I purchased has five shorter drawers and four taller ones, so I chose the bottom short drawer and the top tall drawer (so they’d be right on top of each other). 15mL–30mL bottles are in the shorter drawer, 100mL bottles are in the taller drawer. I bought a roll of round white stickers and used those to label the caps of each bottle so I can identify the bottles from top-down. I used black ink for essential oils, and red for fragrance oils. It’s quite a slick system, and thanks to the drawer bit my oils are shielded from the light.
The larger (500mL) bottles of essential and fragrance oils are stored in a doored cupboard.
Micas & Pigments
I’m quite happy with how these are sorted! I used the top four shorter drawers of my ALEX and arranged them by the rainbow:
- Red & pink
- Orange, yellow, brown, gold, copper, bronze
- Green, turquoise, teal, blue, purple, indigo, violet
- Black, white, silver/grey
Carrier Oils & Butters
These are stored in a doored cupboard to help shield them from the light. Carrier oils get one shelf, butters get another. The bottom of both doored cupboards hold my larger bottles of oils (3–4L) to anchor the cupboards down!
Packaging
For the most part, my packaging is in a series of wooden boxes with sliding lids. These live along the shelf that runs the length of the closet. I labelled them using 6″ lengths of blackboard tape and a white blackboard marker. This set-up allows me to re-label the boxes if necessary, but so far the blackboard marker ink has proved pretty smudge-proof when dry. Some additional packaging lives in the bottom drawers of the ALEX.
Photo props
These live in a bookshelf right near the marble table for easy access. Underneath the table I’ve stacked up the larger photo back-drops made from old fence boards and the like. I also keep my dress form nearby as she’s my focussing dummy!
Gallery of more images
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A bit of a panorama from the door
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Another panorama, featuring the closet
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The ALEX drawer unit, nestled in the corner of the closet. This holds my micas, pigments, essential oils, and some packaging.
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Herbs, botanicals, dry extracts, fatty thickeners, and waxes. The big box is tallow, and the hanging basket has more expensive things like Penstia powder and NAG.
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The hanging basket has gelling agents and other thickeners. Top shelf is antioxidants, preservatives, pH adjusters, fancy salts, and some more miscellaneous things. Second shelf is clays, bottom shelf is cosmetic base powders.
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An overhead of the top shelf with preservatives, antioxidants, etc.
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The equipment cupboard! Mostly. There’s also some heavy stuff on the bottom shelf (lye, Epsom salts, way too much olive oil) to anchor it down.
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Spatula bouquet!
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Top shelf is emulsifiers and solubilizers, second is surfactants, bottom is silicones and misc. powders (baking soda, diatomaceous earth, etc.)
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Silicones!
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The marble table with prop boards underneath.
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Washi tape, beakers, and prep bowls.
Want a video tour as well?
Well, that’s my studio! I hope you enjoyed a bit of a behind-the-scenes look at where I create 🙂 What’s your making space like?
Wow! Must be nice to have everything in one place. I’d love that. My ingredients are stored in boxes in our root cellar(!), and I make my stuff in the kitchen. It works, but that’s mostly because I don’t have that many ingredients to play with. Yet.
That’s mostly how I started, too, though it was the basement instead of the root cellar. There was quite a lot of toting around of tubs, and a lot of running up and down stairs! I’m very glad to have everything nice and close 🙂
Where did you buy the mini whips, seen in the Spatula bouquet photo?
The whisks? Amazon!
Huzzah! It looks like you’ve got your stash contained!!!! Keep up with the organizing! I love those drawers. Since I now live in a western country, I might just have to enjoy IKEA!
Wahoo! I recommend going in the evening, close to closing time. If you go first thing in the morning you will be overrun by moms with small children in prams LOL.
I found out the only IKEA near me is in Dublin! LOL! So no IKEA for me. I went with garage storage solutions. They seemed to be cheap, efficient, and they stand up to some awesome abuse. Not to mention, designed for a little rough use.
My biggest novelty thing I’m experiencing is all the space. It’s amazing! My work space is MASSIVE compared to China! How are you finding yours?
You could always go when you’re in town next month! LOL.
I am still so smitten with my studio. It’s so light and airy and everything is in one place! Amazeballs.
My name is Jealous. Its very ugly. Dont ask. lmao
😛
Wow Marie, that studio is amazing. I thought I had a lot of stuff. My area for making is my kitchen where I have a huge amount of counter space. I store my things in one dedicated kitchen cabinet and 2 “Alex” type drawer units in the kitchen. This includes my DIY pots and utensils, everything. I also have a mini fridge for all my carrier oils as I live in AZ desert and my home is regularly 79 to 82 degrees Fahrenheit for 8 months of the year. I love your filming spaces and all your nifty storage boxes. Thanks so much for sharing and inspiring us all.
I’m so envious of your mini fridge! That would be so useful, but I don’t really need one since there’s room in my food fridge and it rarely gets super hot here. I definitely still do some making in my kitchen, but it’s usually just stuff that’s still in very early development and doesn’t need to have pretty pictures 😛
Great studio have been a long time to see how you organized all your items. I too have almost all of my items on the basement. Live very close to a Restore and was able to pick up enough used kitchen cabinets to make a second “kitchen” for $5…what a steal. Repainted white and viola instant studio work space.
That’s amazing! I’ve been to Restore quite a few times, but I’ve never found anything I wanted to buy. What a score for you, that’s amazing!
Marie, I’m so impressed. Thank you for sharing your studio with us; I got some good ideas from you. I really liked those wooden boxes with the sliding lids! Where did you find those, they would be perfect for organizing some of my packaging as well. Mine are organized to a degree, but I would like to break things down a bit more so I don’t have to dig around as much. Keep up the good work!! I always learn so much from you! You’re a good teacher!!! 🙂
Thanks so much, Abygale! I’m so glad this was helpful 🙂 The boxes were a gift, so I have no idea where they came from.
Hey! How do you usually clean your soaping equipment? Hand wash or machine wash?
I love the way you organised everything, especially the essential oils & fragrance oils!
I always hand wash, but sometimes it’s just a primer wash followed by a run through the dishwasher. Misting things down with 70% rubbing alcohol is also useful 🙂
Hello Marie,
I see you have nail polish bottles in your container supplies; what do you use them for?
I sculpt & manicure my own nails & thought about getting some to store nail products that tend to get messy in their original containers. I’ve seen them on Amazon, but I was just curious if you used them for something else.
Cheers!-Michelle
I use them for nail polish!