When I got the new place, I realized I have a ton of space in my living room for hobby furniture. A little time in Ikea and I had exactly what I needed. First was the most important part: the painting desk.
It's a Micke desk. For $80, a good deal. My favorite part is that the side shelves can be built on the right or the left. This was not a 100% necessity, I would have just drilled new holes to switch it around myself, but it was much easier with it purposely made that way. Very handy because I intended the right side to be in the corner of the room.
I has a very large and spacious drawer, too, which helps me keep all those 'desk' items accessible- scissors, pens, rulers, stapler, etc. There's no actual hobby items in there, but I needed a convenient place to keep all of those things. All my hobby tools are actually in the shelving unit to the right of the desk.
These are actually two separate units from Target. The top piece is 2 shelves high, which I've had for a long time. The bottom piece is 3 high, and new. They're part of the ever-popular cube storage collections. Both the 2-cube and 3-cube styles are still available, plus a whole plethora of cube styles and colors. Most are stackable with units by the same brand, too. You're looking at $15-30 for each of these, depending on the brand.
The fabric cubes are also from Target. This particular pattern I got on clearance, so might not be around. But they come in a zillion colors. They range from $6 to about $20 (for the really fancy ones). The tricky part is making sure you get ones that fit your unit- they're not all sized the same, as I found out the hard way. Just check the measurements on the package.
Most exciting, though, are the plastic drawers. They're Sterilite 3-drawer bins and they're excellent for storing all your hobby essentials. Plus they fit nicely into those cube units. I haven't labeled the drawers yet, but they are nice and organized. There's one for tools, airbrush supplies, extra paint, sculpting goodies, bases, and basing supplies. Note that P3 paint pots stand up nicely in them, but dropper bottles don't. For $9 a pop, they're a good deal for the organizationally challenged.
I get a lot of questions about where I got my Adeptus Astartes poster. Unfortunately, you can't just buy it. It was a free promotional item when a new GW store opened up in my area back in January. You can occasionally find things like this on eBay.
Last but not least are the fantastic display cases. You may recall the Detolf one I purchased ages ago, which it turns out they still sell, despite it having been on "clearance" when I bought one. The ones I purchased this time around are the Klingsbo cabinets and they're a hundred times nicer (at only twice the price).
These cabinets are sturdier, have 5 glass shelves instead of 4, are raised off the ground, and have a lock so you can use to secure them closed (the lock also makes a nice, sizable handle which the Detolf lacks). All huge bonuses. Plus, they also have a nice wire shelf at the bottom that looks really nice empty but can also be used... as a shelf. So it has 6 shelves in all.
It's a little taller than the Detolf one, but because it has 5 glass shelves instead of 4, each shelf has a little less clearance. That's totally OK, though, because my Imperial Knight and Dark Elf on Black Dragon both fit in there nicely with several inches to spare. It's about 10.5" clearance between the shelves, and there aren't too many minis that tall. Certainly none that I plan to purchase. When the time comes, even Smaug will fit in there, though he will likely get a whole shelf to himself.
I originally bought just one because $140 is a little steep. It's totally worth the money, but I just moved and had to buy all kinds of stuff (like, that desk and storage stuff and a dresser, too) I couldn't really afford another $140 cabinet. The apartment building does actually expect me to pay rent on the place, after all.
My parents had helped me move, and were helping organize the place while I was at work (greatest parents ever) when my mom decided I needed a second cabinet. Not just because I have enough minis to fit in two but because we're apparently psychically linked and she thought the living room would look nicer with one unit on either side of the TV. That's exactly what I said about the Detolf one when I got it years ago. So they drove an hour away to Ikea to get me another one and had it assembled by the time I got home from work. Best surprise ever.
I haven't added lights yet, but it's on my list of to-dos. There's a lot of little things I still need to get for the new place (plus a sofa...) so they're just going to have to wait a little while longer. But there are some nice ones that are wireless out there I'm looking in to.
The whole place has really come together surprisingly well. I'm just so thrilled that I got a space so conductive to hobbying. It's by no means perfect (I have no paint rack yet, I'm borrowing one in the meantime) but it really gives me no excuse not to paint for an hour or two every night. Nothing needs to get dragged out or put away, it's all just there, ready and waiting.
The best part? It's actually been working. I've been painting and using the airbrush a lot since I got settled. Posts with pics of those items to come shortly. But almost every night I've gotten some hobby done. I might actually be able to start making a dent in the huge backlog of minis I have. Who'd have thought? I think I am going to start with my Saga Revenants and then work on some terrain pieces I've been collecting.