Budget Breakdown: A Colorado Family Builds a Tiny Mobile Art Studio for $12K
Mom, dad, and daughter use reclaimed materials to craft a luminous little atelier reminiscent of a covered wagon.
Mom, dad, and daughter use reclaimed materials to craft a luminous little atelier reminiscent of a covered wagon.
Kathy "Kat" and Brian Mast like to collect things. For Kat, it’s rocks. She uses stones (some whole and some chiseled into mosaic tesserae) alongside other found materials, such as dried cacti foraged during hikes and scraps from construction sites (painted metal, vintage nails) to make art. Brian, an engineer turned builder, upcycles discarded and leftover materials into housing projects.
When Kat and Brian Mast downsized to a rented house in Salida, Colorado, the lack of studio space for Kat, an artist, was a problem. The solution, designed by their daughter, Andrea Ostman, was a stand-alone studio on wheels. With its high roof and flatbed trailer base, it looks like a modern-day covered wagon and is similarly able to roam.
Photo by Benjamin Rasmussen
The husband’s and wife’s passions combined when they downsized from Hayward, Wisconsin, to Salida, a small Colorado town that sits along the Arkansas River. Most rental houses in the area are historic (read: small) and less than ideal for an artist in need of space, so the Masts decided to build Kat an art studio on wheels, or, more specifically, on a flatbed trailer.
For the design, they turned to their daughter, architect Andrea Ostman, co-owner of Follow Architecture in Boulder. Ostman imagined a blend of rustic and modern, whimsical and practical—a covered wagon befitting a traveling artist. "You want it to match the identity of her art," Ostman explains. "What’s something that’s kind of different, that’ll stand out, that speaks to a unique artist vibe?"
Kat’s workbench is made of a century-old wooden beam from a warehouse in Duluth, Minnesota.
Photo by Benjamin Rasmussen
The studio is wrapped in corrugated Cor-Ten steel, while the ends are composed of charred reclaimed cedar.
Photo by Benjamin Rasmussen
See the full story on Dwell.com: Budget Breakdown: A Colorado Family Builds a Tiny Mobile Art Studio for $12K
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