[DIY] - Built a studio furniture by yourself

My previous studio had a separate computer closet that vented to the outside. In my current situation, I simply placed all my computer peripherals in a separate rack located as far from the listening position as possible. While the fan noise is audible, in practice it doesn't bother me at all. Sometimes the simplest solutions are best.

Digistation Mixing Desks

Studio Furnishings

Your studio's goals should also drive the choices that you make in studio furniture. This is an area where you have many options. There are solutions to fit any budget-including no budget-and you can create a look that reflects your personality. Your equipment layout and room dimensions will determine the type of furniture you need. There are really four approaches you can take: purpose-built studio furniture; touring cases; homebuilt furniture; and repurposed, non-audio-oriented furniture for studio use.

Companies such as Argosy and Omnirax offer a variety of studio-furniture solutions, including designs that specifically fit some of the most popular mixing consoles and workstations. These pieces look professional and can help you pack a lot of gear into a small space. They are mostly made from particleboard, and assemble quickly and easily in your studio. Particleboard does, however, tend to be quite heavy, and you have to be particularly careful when moving any furniture made from this substance. Placing undue stress on the furniture can sometimes cause the metal connecting bolts to rip out from the particleboard, and gluing it back together delivers mixed results. Be sure to remove all the equipment before moving the furniture.

If your budget is modest, or if you are interested in a more personalized look, thrift stores can be a gold mine for finding retro chic treasures that you can modify to fit your studio needs. My personal favorite is scouring online classifieds, such as craigslist, where I've found loads of beautiful art deco pieces for $50 to $75. Old turntable cabinets are a perfect fit for audio gear, and they fill your studio with vibe.

If you have custom space requirements or far-out design ideas and are handy with a hammer, the DIY route is always an option. You can build equipment racks and stands out of plywood and 1 x 2s that may not land you a spot in Better Homes and Gardens but will certainly be functional. I've had a couple of studios in one-car garages where space was at a premium. With some simple designs, a few trips to the lumberyard, and a couple of weekends of quality time with my table saw, I was able to make every square inch count (If you want to by a Best Table Saw, visit here: http://besttablesawsreviews.com).

Make yourself studio furniture

My previous studio was focused on permanence, and purpose-built studio furniture was the right choice at that time. In my new studio, the most important design consideration is portability. As a result, everything is placed inside of EWI Tourcase racks and drawers (www.audiopile.net). They are well made and very durable, with heavy-duty casters for easy moving. If you like to take your gear out for location recording, or are planning on moving your studio from time to time, rolling racks are a great solution. My mixing console and computer keyboard sit on a $50 heavy-duty plastic folding table, which gets the job done.

Developers plan 4000 home in Oxford TWP

In 1997, he converted a former furniture store into an antique mall and a woodworking shop into an office-furniture store. This year, Snyder plans to renovate 109 N. Washington, a 2,500-square-foot Victorian home, into office space and build a 2,000-square-foot office building next door. He hopes to complete the project by fall.

Sprawl has spread to Oxford. More than 20 subdivisions are either under construction or planned for the village and township, and commercial development is close behind.

Why are developers building in the once barren burg?

Because they can.

"It's basic. You get growth where there is vacant land'' said Jim Rogers, manager of the data center at the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments.

And Oxford Township has thousands of acres of vacant land and multiple undeveloped waterfronts. It's also within commuting range of employment centers such as Auburn Hills, Rochester Hills and Troy.

Deborah Schutt, executive director of the Oxford Community Development Authority, said the village is transforming.

Three restaurants, an antique shop and an office supply store opened recently. Now, several new commercial and office buildings are awaiting construction or expansion in the village and Oxford Township.

Oxford Bank Corp. recently purchased land next to its headquarters, between Stanton and Broadway streets, M-24 and Pearl Street. The site has two one-level buildings, but bank officials have begun a site-plan study to determine whether it should build a two- or three-story building, said President Randall Fox. ``We want to keep a significant presence in the expanding community,'' he said.

Grand Rapids-based Goodrich Quality Theaters Inc. also is planning to expand. President Bob Goodrich purchased the three-screen Oxford Cinema, on M-24 in the village, in 1997. He plans to add five screens with stadium seating and digital sound in an adjacent lot. Goodrich also plans to retrofit two of the old screens and renovate the lobby. He said the project could cost $2.5 million.

Part of Oxford's appeal is that it is ``somewhat untapped,'' Goodrich said.

Owner and investor Matt Jonna, president of Farmington Hills-based MJM Associates, agreed.

``Smaller towns are the future in undervalued assets,'' he said.

Jonna and his father, Edward Jonna, recently purchased a former hardware store at M-24 and Dennison Street. Although the project still is in the design phase, the Jonnas, with the help of Victor Saroki & Associates Architects P.C., hope to turn the 10,000-square-foot building into a retail center. The $300,000 to $500,000 project is scheduled to begin this summer and be completed by the end of the year.

Chuck Snyder of Dryden has been converting empty commercial spaces in downtown Oxford into stores and offices.

In 1997, he converted a former furniture store into an antique mall and a woodworking shop into an office-furniture store. This year, Snyder plans to renovate 109 N. Washington, a 2,500-square-foot Victorian home, into office space and build a 2,000-square-foot office building next door. He hopes to complete the project by fall.

Snyder also is converting a former brake shop into a 5,000-square-foot office-furniture store and renovating the Crawford mansion, another Victorian home, into 2,800 square feet of class A office space. He plans to complete both this summer.

``I invest in areas that will grow and prosper and develop,'' Snyder said. ``Where there is land, there will ultimately be people.''

That's why residential developers are flooding the area.

There are 23 residential developments with 4,180 homes under construction or planned in the village or township.

John Weaver, a partner in Bloomfield Hills-based Real Estate Interest Group Inc., said the rural character of Oxford tends to attract new residents. He said other northern Oakland County towns, with water and sewer already in place, have been developed to their potential.

Real Estate Investment is building Waterstone, a mixed-use development on 1,400 acres and seven lakes just north of the village. The development straddles M-24, extending to just west of Granger Road, east almost to Oxford Road, north to Dunlap Road and south to Seymour Lake Road.

Waterstone includes 2,000 single-family homes priced at $150,000 to $600,000, a 27-hole public golf course and 75 acres of commercial development. The commercial property may include a small neighborhood shopping center west of M-24 and near the golf course.

Just east of M-24, Real Estate Investment Group is planning Market Street, highway-oriented commercial spaces and a 180,000-square-foot Meijer Inc. retail center with a historical village facade.

Construction on Waterstone began last fall and may be a 10-year project, Weaver said. ``In, say, five years we will be about 50 to 60 percent complete.''

Oxford Lakes, a plan of Oxford-based Lake Edge Development Inc., is a long-term project within village limits, on M-24 and Drahner Road. Lake Edge is building 455 homes on 100 acres. The project began in 1986, and construction manager Wendy Taube doesn't expect the $200,000 to $750,000 homes to be complete until 2004.

Village and township officials don't want to suppress the growth, but they do want to direct its course.

Oxford's Schutt said village officials are not courting franchise owners. Officials want unique shops and restaurants because they want to maintain a historic feel.

As an incentive, the Oxford development authority has established a loan program. Building owners can borrow up to $500,000 and tenants up to $10,000, at 2.5 percentage points below prime interest rates, to bring buildings up to code, make them accessible to people with disabilities and create a historical feel.

Schutt said lease prices are relatively low at $7 to $11 a square foot, compared with $12 to $14 a square foot in nearby Lake Orion.

Village officials are discussing the creation of a historic district, sign ordinances, nature trails and summer festivals that reflect the rural feel of Oxford.

They also are considering building a new elementary school and new township hall to accommodate the growth.

"In the last few years, you have seen malls being built up, but small towns were being missed,'' said, Victor Saroki of Victor Saroki & Associates Architects P.C. ``People want to live in a community again.''

Shop Talk; Jonathan V. Last, Closet Carpenter

I was never in any danger of succumbing to golf. As a teenager, I worked three summers looping at a local country club and spent a lot of time around the game. I understood its appeal: the satisfaction of precise physical motion, the thrill of hunting for new and better equipment, the quiet and solitary beauty of the fairways. But it didn't touch me in the deep place that causes people to fall in love.

And so that little corner of my life the one men reserve for useless, addictive hobbies sat empty.

About a year ago I started looking for a piece of furniture, a small cabinet to house. It was a simple piece, but I had very precise spatial requirements. I needed my cabinet to be 45" x 22" x 18". After three months searching, I couldn't find anything that worked.

One afternoon I mentioned this annoyance to my neighbor, Jim. He looked at me the way a professor might look at a particularly daft student and asked, 'Why don't you just make one?'

Which is how it started.

Jim held my hand through that first project. He sketched out the schematics for the design and went with me to Home Depot to pick out the wood and hardware. He set me up in his workshop and walked me through the construction, showing me how to make miter cuts and use a nail punch. We built the piece in maybe six hours.

Jim could have done it in 45 minutes--that's how simple the design was. But in addition to being on the steep end of the learning curve, I took my time in the shop because I enjoyed it so much. Everyone knows the old saw about measuring twice and cutting once. I measured six times, sometimes seven--not because I was getting it wrong, but because I liked seeing how right I was. Each additional confirmation was a little metaphysical gold star: proof that there are absolutes in life and that these truths are knowable through reason alone.

After the cabinet was built, I spent two weeks finishing it: staining the wood, sanding it with steel wool, rubbing it with tung oil. The finished product wasn't spectacular--you wouldn't mistake it for anything from the Restoration Hardware catalog. But neither would you immediately assume that it hadn't come from a store.

I was proud of the cabinet for a week. Or vainglorious. Take your pick. When I recounted the story of my triumph over nature--and I told it more than twice--I was a latter-day Hephaestus. But the pride was soon displaced by an itch. I wanted to do it again.

Project number two was even simpler: a wall-mounted bookcase for holding books. I started this one by cribbing a design from a do-it-yourself website. But the itch wouldn't go away. I found myself doodling schematics any time I had a spare piece of paper. And I started fixating on aspects of my little cabinet that suddenly seemed shabby.

My ambitions grew. The new piece would have dovetailed corners along the main structure, and the interior joints would be accomplished with pocket holes. I considered mixing woods, using both oak and pine. I spent hours researching gluing techniques and the merits of coarse versus fine threads for screws in mixed-wood projects. (All for naught, as it turned out. I settled on using aspen, a nice middle of the road wood, throughout.)

And now the project list is growing. Next up is a mudroom organizer with a bench, shoe-cubbies, and coat hooks. After that, a low-rise bookshelf with an adjustable saw tooth shelf-system. Then a coffee table. Then a library cart. Then a farmhouse bed.

Recently a friend, another writer nursing the same addiction, started passing me magazines. Building Furniture, Fine Woodworking's 2012 Tool Guide, you know the sort. I smuggle them into the house inside my computer bag and keep them hidden in my sock drawer. Once or twice a day, when I'm alone, I'll pull them out and leaf through them, drooling over rabbets and dados, box joints and band saws.