Ive just been soldering some Xmas decorations which I enjoy doing, but because of the fumes from the solder I have to have a fan blewing(to waft fumes away from me) and the door open for ventilation!! Im freezng!!
What horrid weather do you have to endure to make your crafts?
I have my ironing board in front of a window that the sun blazes into in the afternoons … in the summer it gets a little intense … and steamy. In the winter I just end up fogging up the window 
I’m the same as you Grimm, I do my oxidising outside as it stinks, and the fumes would turn all the silver in my shed black. I also do my serious hammering outside, as my shed is up off the ground and shakes and bounces everything onto the floor if I wallop too hard inside.
Very glad I don’t have neighbours
Winter’s okay for me, but my studio faces South and in summer it can get unbearable! We bought an air conditioning unit/fan, which helps, and I put up silver-coloured aluminium blinds, plus linen curtains, so I can close them to reflect some of the sun away… but it can still be soooo hot in there!
I do my soldering in the garage, which is freezing and also I either have to have the door open which is really windy and blows the flame on the blowtorch about, or shut which makes it really dark in there! Roll on summer! I’m ok doing hammering in there but I do wonder what my neighbours must think!
May as well put a sun-roof in the garage - you can open that without the wind blowing about and - bonus! - you get light too!
Heehee - I’ll have to mention that and see what my husband says! We’re hopefully going to knock it down next year and get an extension, so if I’m really lucky I might get a little space purpose built (that’s the dream anyway!)
Oooo… Our builder offered to convert the garage to a studio for me… He even said he could take the side wall down and extend it a couple of feet, to the boundary line. He thought I could have a really nice studio space in there, for all weathers. I wish…sigh… I have a little dream, which involves raising the roof, to make it slope along the length of the garage - with windows in the roof, to give lots of light without using wall-space. And replacing the garage door with a wall and window… and insulating and lining the walls, floor and roof… putting in a heater… sigh… There would be so much space - I could have my printing press, as well as all my current storage and work area…
It’s always good to have a dream, eh?
That sounds amazing! Ours will have to come down if we want to extend the house as it’s kind of in front of the kitchen window already! Our neighbours did what we want to do kitchen-wise but they re-built the garage further down the garden, so I guess that’s an option. I just don’t like having to share my space with all the household junk that’s in there too, and if I had my own little room / outbuilding I could keep it locked and away from everyone else in the family!
Lizzie,
Make sure you are aware of the Party Wall etc Act 1996 ! That can still affect you and your property even if you aren’t physically attached to your neighbour, (In some cases), and many people come unstuck.
Of course, builders know it all, so never forget to mention it to clients !
Even architects are not always as sharp as they should be on the law, but as a chartered surveyor, I am just a little biased.
Not intending to rain on your parade, or your dream, though…!
The frustrating thing is you cannot act for yourself under The Party Wall etc Act, ie on your own property, but in theory you could act for me as my Party Wall Surveyor !
(You would have to keep your fees low as a fellow crafter though…)
Thanks Ronald - we had a Party Wall Agreement when we extended the back of our house last year. The architect was very on-the-ball and dealt with it all very professionally. Lovely man.
If we do convert the garage, I will remember your friendly warning, though the boundary line is by the public footpath and the neighbour on the other side of that has extended their garage up to the path boundary - and we already have a fence on the boundary - so I think we’d be fine (so long as we notified the council!). But point noted, thanks!
Lizzie
Probably OK, but I know of cases where P/Wall Act applied in just such a situation with a narrow path between properties- It all depends on distances (and foundation depths).
One of my best friends is an architect, and he was profoundly deaf, but had an op for cochlea implant, and is doing really well. He keeps complaining how noisy metal dog chains sound, and jangling keys !
On weather issues, luckily did a craft fair inside yesterday in Hertfordshire, -was so cold my car had iced up on inside as well as out and took ages to scrape off.
Brrr!
Well, as it’s pretty unlikely that I’ll ever have the cash to take the builder up on his offer to extend the garage, it’s all academic really. However, thanks for the hints and I’ll bear it in mind, should I ever feel able to invest in a New and Improved Studio space!
I’m woodcutting and printing in a terribly cold room, there’s a woodburner which gives out no heat as I’m burning wet wood.
Luckily the local lidl had some ski trousers which I’m wearing now together with two jumpers, a scarf and beret.
…update, I’ve got chilblains 
I had chilblains last year, they really hurt and you have my every sympathy. I currently wear fluffy slippers, and so far my feet have been fine. Hope they get better soon @MattUnderwood
I’ve been reading this and feel I should share the story of the lab I used to work in… Due to the air flow rate (high for safety reasons) the heating system could only manage to warm the input air by 10C to the outside air temp. Not so bad in spring or autumn but in winter when it was sub zero outside it would struggle to get to double figures indoors with a wind chill factor on top! Who ever made it in first would often report back how bad it was and the rest of us would go for another coffee to see if that would give it long enough to limp over 10C before going down with hats and scarves on under our lab coats (no they didn’t come in a down fill option just standard cotton). We would have to warm reactions to stop the solvent freezing. In the summer we had the opposite problem with the AC only being able to cool it by a few degrees and when the indoor temp got into the mid twenties the stoppers would start popping out of solvent bottles. My box room workshop is really quite pleasant all year round by comparison.
It’s all relative really, isn’t it Sasha? I was very pleased with my tiny spot in the laundry room, to begin with… until my crafting outgrew the desk and shelf area available - when I took over the dining room. Then, my new studio seemed huge by comparison… but having spent time working in other artists’ studios, it suddenly seemed small and pokey…
But really, I am happy to have my own space, especially since I snaffled a wonderful plan chest at auction - at last, somewhere to store my large collection of beautiful paper!!