Before you sign

Fitting out a first workspace can feel overwhelming. Plan the room around the work rather than the other way round, and most of the expensive decisions end up making themselves for you.

To save you a season of shuffling benches, here are the three mistakes that cost first-time studio tenants the most time and money.

1. Signing before the power survey

Every press, guillotine and extractor on your list carries a load figure. Ask the landlord for the board rating in writing — a single-phase supply can quietly rule out half your equipment before you have moved a single box in.

2. Underestimating dead storage

Stock, offcuts and drying racks eat more floor than the machines do. Budget roughly a third of the room for material that is waiting rather than working, and keep all of it off the bench walls.

3. Letting the layout follow the drawing

A plan that reads calm on paper often ignores how far you actually walk. Trace one full job through the room — cut, print, dry, trim, pack — before you fix anything permanent to the floor.

Measure twice, lease once

Take the tape measure to the viewing, not the tape measure to the regret. A studio that fits the work pays for itself in the first quarter.