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After having renovated our home, we have a new completely empty room to setup for miniature hobby working. And I just don't know how.

I'll be using it for:

* painting
* airbrushing
* general modelling work
* a computer work station
* model storage
* hobby tools storage

It's not a very big room, so Im looking for efficient ways to utilize it.

I hope I can have the airbrush station permanently up, so in a corner perhaps. Usually when I airbrush I struggle to find places to put things, ie bottles, models to be painted, models finished painted, airbrush holders, etc.. Also the airbrush station should be near the vent so I can connect it.

Perhaps wooden boards I could pull out as drawers near the air brush station for extra work space when needed?

Also a clever way to store paint bottles. And ready made models, shelves of some sort I guess.

And I have toddlers, aged 1 and 4, in the house. So things that are high up on the walls would be preferable.

Ideally this room would double as guest bed room, which probably won't work with the constant fumes of glue and paint that will be in it.

How big is the room?
How much do you have available to spend?
Assuming the door is 1M wide it looks to be 5x4M if to scale?
What height is the windowsill?
Are there any radiators?
What's the ceiling height?
Where are the electrical sockets/switches?
What lighting does it have?
Do you have any existing furniture/equipment that must go in that room?
Beds are generally 2M long how wide is it? There are only so many places it can go unless you're having a bunk, pull out/put up or mattress on the floor?

Ideally you want 4 desks one for painting, one for airbrush and one for assembly and one for your computer if you think that you can fit all of those in as well as a bed then go for it.
They are the largest items. Storage/shelving will probably have to be wall mounted given the amount of wall/floor space those items will take up. In a room that small I'd say that any kind of island set up is out of the question.

Best bet is to make a scale drawing with scale pieces of paper for the furniture and shuffle it around til you find something you like or better yet sheets of cardboard, masking tape or piles of boxes in the actual room.

I recently added a hobby work room to my home as well. I wanted to have a table for painting, but I didn't want my paints taking up space on the table. I wanted a series of mini-shelves that I could put my paints on directly above the table.

After much searching, I found this website http://www.showcase-express.com/ and found exactly what I was looking for. If you look on the left side of the page, you will find a link for "Browse by Item Series". Click on that, and then select Series 2000. I originally bought the 1000 series, but it barely fit a GW paint pot, and the taller ones didn't even come close. I contacted the company and they readily took back what I purchased and sent me replacements!

That size gave me enough depth and height, that I was able to store my GW paints as well as my Reaper Master series and Model Color series paints. I bought six of them and installed them directly above my table, and it works great! Installation is quite easy (need screws, mollys, and a power drill), and instructions are found on the website. I didn't mess with the end caps or the plastic window screening for the front that were supplied.

On the other end of the room, I purchased some kitchen base cabinets (3 of them) and then bought a counter top, and it works great for storing tools, boxes of stuff, and the counter top is perfect for finished or unfinished models, and various other things.

My room is probably larger than yours, so I was able to add a table in the middle of the room for gaming, or just more space to spread stuff out on, or for putting my Lego's together

Hope I was able to give you a couple of ideas. If I get a chance, I'll snap a picture or two of the room and post them!

Also think about light. You generally want good natural light when you paint, but want to avoid glare on computer screens. I’d probably put the paint station under the window, with the airbrush off nearby, so you can vent out the window. Computer on the side wall, to avoid direct light. If you can fit both the computer and assembly on the same desk, that can be nice. I like to clean mold lines during the computer’s turn/load screens while I play. That leaves the other side wall and door area for shelves/bed/other.

If you want a bed, a pull out sofa bed might be your best bet. Useful when you don’t have guests, won’t dominate the room, and uncomfortable enough that they don’t linger longer then they are welcome.

I’ve got a pretty small space these days.

I do my assembly/painting here. To the left of where I’m taking the picture from is my computer desk, and another bookshelf in the corner, mirroring the workbench. The sofa folds out for weekends when I have The Boy. While I have some minis on the white shelf in the corner, most of my collection is on a shelf/china cabinet in the main living area. Being divorced does have some perks.

I'd disagree with Nevelon about natural light for painting. It casts shadows and can be inconsistent in both colour and intensity and often it's too warm depending on the direction that the window faces.
Personally I prefer lots of good artificial light so that my paint station looks the same all year round, day or night.

 Alex Kolodotschko wrote:
I'd disagree with Nevelon about natural light for painting. It casts shadows and can be inconsistent in both colour and intensity and often it's too warm depending on the direction that the window faces.
Personally I prefer lots of good artificial light so that my paint station looks the same all year round, day or night.

That’s fair. I’m used to painting in the basement like a trogolydite, or after work in the evenings. But natural light is something I hear other people desire, so thought I’d bring it up.

have a small room here, roughly 6' square, what I've done is this



basically 2' deep desk on two sides, with shelving above (2' deep on one side, 14" on the other) - lighting has since gone in where the red arrows are.

storage is under the desk and the two shelves above it.

the bit to the right is dedicated as a spray area (acrylic only as rattle cans stink), the compressor is under the desk.

there is natural light but the tubes under the shelf are circa 1,500 lumens and easily enough - though could do with painting the desk white to get light up and under the models.


key though, look at what boxes you use and size the shelves around them, e.g. the shelf with the KR cases on it was sized in depth and height specifically for them.

Pulls double duty as a work bench for "work" with the desk to the left for a laptop, printer above it, storage above that though.

Doesn't have enough actual storage but the room isn't physically big enough for that, but does have enough for stuff in progress and finished cases.

Main issue I've found is a lack of space to store "in progress' stuff, though thats partly a bonus as it forces a bit of "get on with it"

just needs a proper fan and filter for the spray bit installing

Great input!

Attached is an image with measurements


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Ryzak620 wrote:
I recently added a hobby work room to my home as well. I wanted to have a table for painting, but I didn't want my paints taking up space on the table. I wanted a series of mini-shelves that I could put my paints on directly above the table.

After much searching, I found this website http://www.showcase-express.com/ and found exactly what I was looking for. If you look on the left side of the page, you will find a link for "Browse by Item Series". Click on that, and then select Series 2000. I originally bought the 1000 series, but it barely fit a GW paint pot, and the taller ones didn't even come close. I contacted the company and they readily took back what I purchased and sent me replacements!

That size gave me enough depth and height, that I was able to store my GW paints as well as my Reaper Master series and Model Color series paints. I bought six of them and installed them directly above my table, and it works great! Installation is quite easy (need screws, mollys, and a power drill), and instructions are found on the website. I didn't mess with the end caps or the plastic window screening for the front that were supplied.

On the other end of the room, I purchased some kitchen base cabinets (3 of them) and then bought a counter top, and it works great for storing tools, boxes of stuff, and the counter top is perfect for finished or unfinished models, and various other things.

My room is probably larger than yours, so I was able to add a table in the middle of the room for gaming, or just more space to spread stuff out on, or for putting my Lego's together

Hope I was able to give you a couple of ideas. If I get a chance, I'll snap a picture or two of the room and post them!

I'd love to see pictures.

How would Vallejo bottles fit on that shelf do you think?

That 60 cm space to the left of the door is begging for some shelves.
KR cases would fit nicely in a few combinations although if it's a cold/damp exernal wall I'd be wary about using their cardboard cases.