I am hoping that some of you with special areas of your home just for cake decorating can give me some ideas.

My DH is fixing up part of our basement to be my decorating "studio". In our talks of planning we just can't seem to put anything concrete together.

What are some great ideas for my area that I may not be thinking of? I want lots of upper cabinet space, of course. A moveable island. A stationary large table. A sink, a refrigerator. Some shelves to put completed work on so that it's up and out of the way.

I am worried that when I get it all together that I will wish that I had done it differently.

Thanks for your insight!

You need a mixing area with storage and counterspace, a cake receiving/cooling area next to the oven, a decorating area with your decorating tools handy and a pantry/storage area for cake boards, cake stands, bulk supplies etc. Does your refrigerator have a freezer? You'll need one for chilling molded items, storing extra butter and so on.

Congratulations, it sounds wonderful! I can't wait to see what kind of tips you get. I only have my kitchen. This must be terribly exciting for you. I wish I had more refrigerator space.

You want lots of shelving, but really there's no need for cabinets. If you've ever been in a professional kitchen, the first thing you'll notice is NO cabinets. With the shelves you can check your inventory at a glance, and frankly they're easier to keep clean.

lighting, have extra and good lighting.

what about an office space for a desk, computer, etc and a place to see upcoming orders at a glance (think like Duff)

I would also add something (counter space, container, whatever) for drying your tips and pastry bags. I find my empty dishwasher works great to hold open bags so they will dry and tip "hang" on the divider things to dry.

I would also measure your largest pans and make sure your shelves can contain them. Like wise, if you use fondant have a counter that will accomidate the absolute largest piece of fondant you may ever have to roll out to cover a cake.

Depends what work you do. I do lots of cookies, so I want a rolling bakers rack to cool and dry cookies - right now I have them drying on every surface in my kitchen. The racks are not very expensive, for the amount of surface area they provide (make sure the pans fit your oven).

Here's the free site I used when designing my bakery. http://arrangearoom.bhg.com/arrangearoom/
You can save your designs and go back to work on them more later. I had to alter some things to fit my needs (lamps became mixers) but all in all it was very useful. Leahs is absolutely right about shelving, but I chose to have cabinets in the main part of my bakery and wire shelving in the walk-in pantry because I wanted things to be pretty as well as functional. My bakery is 16' x 20' with an almost 8' x 8' pantry. It's none too big for me, but I know decorators who do fine with much less. I have a commercial 'frig and oven, triple sink, wash sink, speed rack, 20 qt. mixer, three Kitchenaids, three ss tables (4', 6', 8'), quite a bit of countertop, a large lateral file and an office area. I'd send you the diagram, but it looks like all of mine were lost when they upgraded the site.

Thanks for all of the fabulous ideas. . .I was thinking shelves, too. Desk area. . .I have to be sure since my space is only 10 x 11 or so.

I won't need space for the oven/cooling areas, as I want to remain a cottage industry in OH. . .we can only use our kitchen oven for the baking part, rather than a separate kitchen. I recently got a huge double GE Profile with Trivection/Convection Technology. I love it, but it doesn't really cut down on the baking time. . .may I'm not using it right. Now I just need to get a little bigger mixer, I have a KA Classic with an extra bowl. I would like to get another one in the basement for making icing, etc.

My work volume isn't huge, yet. . .I have been doing cakes for several years, but I am now starting to do a little advertising. My kids are still young and with a husband with irregular work hours, it's hard to set a solid work schedule for myself. I've just been a word of mouth worker up until recently. DH is tired of my mess interfering with the rest of the family! I can understand that. . .