Art Storage

Whether you are a budding professional artist or simply an enthusiastic amateur who loves to draw, sooner or later you will need to store your artwork. Between the drawings, paintings, paint, pencils, and other types of art and art supplies that an artist needs, you can quickly run out of room. Here is how you can find the much needed art storage in your home, so you don't need to feel like your entire home is one big art studio.

• Avoid. There are a few things that you will need to avoid when storing your artwork. These items are plastic, facial tissues, excessive light, and concrete. Avoid plastic containers because, even thought they can keep water and moisture out, they can also keep moisture in. Facial tissue does absolutely no good for long-term storage because they breakdown quickly, which will end up leaving tissue residue all over your artwork. Concrete, though it doesn't look like it, is porous and can allow moisture to rise through it. Do not store or set any artwork on unsealed concrete for significant periods of time. Light is actually the bane of artwork. Over time, excessive light causes paint to fade and deteriorate, so any storage system that you use needs to keep out any direct light, and preferably be dark.
• Temperature. Your storage system needs to be kept at a constant temperature. Avoid any dramatic changes in temperature, and void hot spots. Fluctuating the temperature can damage your artwork and cause it to warp or age prematurely.
• Supplies. Supplies should organized by purpose and item. For example, keep all your brushes together in one drawer or container, all the paper in one drawer or folder, and so on. This allows you to know where things are and find what you need as quickly as possible, without having everything scattered all around the house. One idea for storing your smaller paint brushes is to make sure that you clean all the paint out of them and, if possible, place them inside a straw. Place the end in first, and this will help prevent any splaying of the brush end, while also protecting the drying brush from any debris contamination.
• Racks. There are specially made racks that you can purchase which will allow you to properly store any and all kinds of artwork. Some are designed to allow your artwork to hang properly, while others are designed to store things like pottery and statues.
• Hanging. Artwork was designed to be shown, so simply hanging it will help you to store it properly. If you are running out of room, then you can always offer some of your artwork to friends and family for hanging in their homes.