Attic Room Studio Build

[Luke W]

Fabric time... Based on recommendations on here some general searching, I went for some Camira Cara fabric. It costs a little more than some of the alternatives, but it's really easy to work with and I think the finish makes it more than worth it. It also comes in a decent width so I ended up with very little waste.

A few of the panels and the traps didn't get any pictures taken as I got a bit carried away once I'd started the first one, but theres enough of the others to see what was going on.

Using an off-cut for one of the smaller panels (missing some Rockwool in this picture):


Front side:


One of the square panels:


Front of both square panels (the fold in the left one has since worked its way out):


Side panels all done:


Before the final fixing I gave the backs of the panels a spray with a mix of PVA/water to make sure no loose fibres went floating around.

[OneWorld]

That looks very neat. It certainly puts my DIY / woodworking skills to shame

Same here, no matter what I try all the wiring looks like an explosion in a spaghetti factory

[Sam Spoons]

Good colour choice there Luke.

[Luke W]

Good colour choice there Luke.

Does it look a bit familiar?!

[Luke W]

Onto the ceiling panel fabric...

To get a nice edge on the outside of the ceiling panels I attached some thin moulding to the edge of the frames, held in place with some panel pins and glue. Once it had dried I cut the edges flush and sanded them over, making sure everything was nice and smooth so there wasn't any chance of tearing the fabric at the edges.

Glued up, waiting to dry:


Fabric stapled roughly into place:


Front side:


Once all three ceiling panels were covered I lined them up together and clamped the back edges, and fixed them together by screwing through the frames from the inside of the panel outwards, directly into the next frame. A few screws going either way made sure to clamp the panels tightly together, and left a neat join between them.

All three up, with a test fit for the cover plate that finishes up the edge of the panels:


You can also see the cable for a light fitting making its way through behind the panel. To mount a light fitting, I used a bit of 12mm MDF, and covered it with an off-cut of Cara.

Light fitting mount:


With everything fixed back up, the next job was to start framing up and working on some little finishing off bits for around the edges and ends of the various panels. I'll have another sort through some photos and hopefully get some of the next stage up tomorrow.

[Luke W]

This stage seems to have a few less pictures, but I've got some some showing how I got the finish on the wood, and a few various stages of the framing going up.

All of the wood I used was just standard softwood timber, a lot cheaper than using anything fancy. Once pieces were cut to length and fitting nicely I gave all the visible faces and edges a sand over (a fine grit paper was enough as planed timber is usually already fairly smooth), and then set about burning them with a blowtorch. This takes a bit of getting used to, once the flame is close enough the wood can go from "exaggerated grain" to simply just on fire rather quickly, I had a go on a few offcuts first to try and avoid having to make things again.

Half way:


Ready:


Two coats of dye rubbed in:


Fitted, after a coat of wax polish:


I also made an end panel to sit above this cover plate, and meet board the light is mounted on. It was another bit of spare MDF cut into shape with an offcut of Cara stapled around it, sized so that the cover plate being screwed in clamps it firmly into place.

[Folderol]

Now that is positively sneaky

[Luke W]

Things were really starting to take shape by this point, I did this while I had a bit of time off so I was keen to get it in working state before I got too busy again, and the arrival of a shiny new keyboard and a copy of Komplete Ultimate was encouraging me even more.

I decided to build a stand to get my screen mounted back behind the front faces of the monitors to minimise reflections as much as possible, and to save on desk space. I also thought that if something was going to sit there at the back wall, it may as well be full of Rockwool.

The start of a frame, using some spare bits of MDF and ply:


Using up all of my Rockwool offcuts:


Front view, with a top made from a leftover bit of a previous build:


Trimming up the bottom with more offcuts:


My speaker stands also arrived around this time from Custom Design, another recommendation from here. Here is one assembled and ready:

[Luke W]

Next up, side panel framing. I also decided to make some front faces for the panels at the back to break things up a bit visually as it was all looking very blue.

I cut a load of slats from two different width timbers, and glued them between two strips cut to the length of the rear panels. These then got the same blowtorch/dye/wax finish to match the rest of the framework.

One in progress:


Test fit (upside down ):


Various stages of frame finishing:


A finished face plate:


One side complete, the frame around the edges is screwed straight to the frame around the rockwool, and the face plates were cut in very tightly and have some panel pins doing the rest:


I then got my desk and kit set up and actually had a listen to some music. I'd been working almost entirely on headphones with the desk facing a different way, so I'd had a listen to some tracks with my old Tannoys on the desk just before I cleared the room to give me an idea of how the space sounded untreated (no surprise endings there). Listening to the same material again with the panels up really was surprising, I had expected a difference, just not quite as much considering the limited space.

I paused on the build here and used the setup as it was for a few months. Half finished, it looked like this:

[Watchmaker]

nice shop! I'm surprised you used mapp gas for the burn, I would have used a lower temperature gas, but the results are stunning. I can never tell if I like woodwork more than music. I seem to more time with saws and chisels as I do recording or playing these days. Well done Luke. More pics please.

[Luke W]

Thanks, really appreciate it

I really enjoy woodwork, it's definitely up there with audio/music for me. You're right about the choice of gas, something a little cooler would have made my life a lot easier but I had a bottle to hand and it got the result I was after, I just had to be a little careful!

I've got a few more pictures of panels and some other little bits and pieces and then a silly amount of the desk build, so I'll get some up here once I've sorted through them.

[Martin Walker]

Wow Luke, this is all stunning work, and I'm convinced that many of us feel more creative in a supportive space like this, so it hope all this effort translates into lots more music!

Bravo once again!

Martin

[Luke W]

Thanks, Martin. I'm definitely finding it more inspiring to work in already, I'm also planning on clearing some space and getting set up to be able to record a few instruments here and there as well as mixing so I'm looking forward to that.

Something a little different now... With some new monitors on order, I decided to make up some heavy bases for my stands to, well, stand on. The idea was to get a bit of extra mass between the monitors and the wooden floor, the stands themselves are filled with sand and are already very substantial but considering it didn't require any purchases I didn't think it could hurt.

I used a very heavy stone floor tile and some off cuts of an underlay used for dance floors.

The tile:


Sliced up:


Rough cut underlay:


Glued up and weighted:


Trimmed to size and edges painted:


In place:

[Martin Walker]

Wow - you are most handy with your hands Luke - the force is strong with you!

Martin

[Luke W]

That's very kind, thank you

Well I've sorted out the last few bits before the desk build, the first bits were a 1200mm x 600mm panel straight above the listening position, and two 600mm square panels on the sloped ceiling either side.

The panels pre-fabric:



Fixed up ready for framing:



Framing:

[Luke W]

Last bit before the desk build...

I had a load of bed slats hanging around so I thought I'd make up some decorative panels to run along the walls above the side panels to fill the gap between the panel frame and ceiling. The same flame/stain/wax approach got them looking much the same as the other timber, and a thin backing board cut to shape gave me something to mount the slats to so they could all go up in one big piece.

Preparing the slats:


Ply backing cut to shape:


Slats glued down and edges trimmed:


Both sides up:


The next stage was a new desk to replace the temporary office desk and make the most use of the narrow space, I'm just sorting through another batch of pictures to upload so once they're up I'll get started again.

[Luke W]

OK, desk build time... With everything sounding a lot nicer I wanted to get a more permanent and practical desk. The weird room shape/size along with the high price of studio furniture and my seemingly endless desire to make life difficult for myself led me to designing and building a desk to fit.

I spent a good while deciding what I wanted and drawing up ideas, and did a final design in Sketchup to give me a rough plan to work to. I decided to include more rack space than I need, and have a sliding shelf for my keyboard so it can be tucked away to save space when I'm just working on edits/mixing. CAD is not one of my strong points, but the design I settled on was this:


The whole thing is made from 18mm MDF, with the odd bit of 2x1 and 3x1 for bracing and as a fixing point for the top. I left a few mm spare on all of the cuts for the panels so they could be clamped together and planed/sanded all together to make sure there was a nice consistent finish.

First panel marked out ready to cut:


Roughed out, and being used as a guide for the next one:


Inside panels with the cut-out for the sliding shelf:



All 4 roughed out and clamped ready for final shaping:


As usual, there's more to come...

[Drew Stephenson]

Gotta love a custom desk!
Out of curiosity, where does you computer live?

[Luke W]

It hides away in the bottom of the rack on the right, external drives live on the shelf above.

[Drew Stephenson]

Ah right, laptop powered. I see it now.

[Luke W]

Yep, the plan is to eventually have a desktop machine in its place, that's why its all tucked away in the rack, but for now it's serving as both studio and mobile machine.

Few more steps in the desk build, here we have a side panel on the bench getting some 2x1 fitted to support the top:


And all four fitted:


Back panel fitted:



And both sides together with some 3x1 bracing:




Starting to look a little bit like a desk by this point.

[Luke W]

Bit more progress on the desk build, been a bit busy recently so updates are a little slower at the moment.

Marking out the top piece:


Cut out with lots of lovely dust:


Test fit:




Once again all edges were left slightly over sized to be sanded up to a nice flat finish. You can also see how the top sits in the recess at the top of the side panels so the angled rack spaces sit flush with the desk surface. So far so good...

The top was attached by screwing upwards through the battern it sits on, which means no visible fixings from the top, no filler needed. This needs a little care and attention with the length and depth of screws vs. the thickness of the top and battern, getting it wrong and going straight through the top is a feeling best avoided.

[Martin Walker]

Lovely work as usual Luke!

Martin

[Luke W]

Thanks Martin

One more part, and then it's paint and trim. A sliding tray for my keyboard, not much to explain here:


First coat of paint, Satin finish, all done with a roller:




Everything that was going to be hidden away out of sight like the insides of the racks and the back panels got a single coat, the outsides got two, and the top was treated to three coats with some light sanding in between.

Side racks in place:


Fitting rack strips, and seeing if the trim I'd found for the edges would do the trick:

[Luke W]

On to the final stages of the desk build now, here's a shot from a bit further back:


Keyboard shelf fitted and in action, the runners are just some standard drawer runners from Screwfix, I had left room to fit another pair of runners on the underneath of the shelf and mount them to the inside rack panels if needed, but the two on the supported the weight of the shelf easily, so I left it at that:



Next up was some moulding to tidy up the edges, so the saws came back out:


These all got the same flame/stain/wax treatment to match the rest of the woodwork, and as they're nice and light were just pushed into place with a bit of adhesive. A close up of one of the top rack surrounds:


A couple more in place, with my power loom from my old rack ready to be adapted for the new desk:


Next up is some screen mounting, and final wiring.