Looking for suggestions on how to tame a very reverberant live-work space in a converted industrial building

I have just moved into a studio flat in a complex of live-work spaces for artists in a converted brewery. It is very reverberant and, I think, quite challenging to turn into a recording space, especially as I want the space to perform several other functions as well, and as I also don't want to lose the 19th century industrial character of the space. At the moment the space is so reverberant that even listening to music recreationally is a bit uncomfortable. Where I want to get to, if it is possible, is to tame the reverberations enough be able to mix and master in the room using speakers rather than only using headphones.

I have put some photos of the space at the end of this post. The first photo is from the entrance area, which is a wide, short corridor. Behind the camera is the kitchen area and in between, to the right of the camera, are the toilet and bathroom .

As you can see from the photos, nearly all the wall is raw brick except for the wall with the digital piano against it, which is hollow. I am hoping to get an acoustic piano to put against that section of wall, but their would be room for some acoustic panels above it.

The ceiling is vaulted brick. I don't think I'll be able to attach anything to the bricks in the ceiling, but I might possibly (although I'm no expert) be able to drill holes in the girders supporting the vaults. That will also depend on whether the landlord would be OK with that; in other words, whether the landlord will consider it equivalent to drilling holes in the walls, which is definitely allowed.

The floor is concrete. I can certainly consider putting a rug on the floor, but I wouldn't want it to prevent me moving furniture around, which I will need to do to make the space work for particular functions. Several pieces of furniture are on castors and can be moved without too much difficulty, but the sofa-bed needs to be slid around a bit, for instance in order to get to the piano, and a rug might make this more difficult.

The wall between the two round windows I want to use as a backdrop for a long-term video project. This means that anything I attach to that wall needs to be easily removable, and the mounts on the wall for those removable objects should not be too obtrusively visible. I have actually been thinking of mounting a large pinboard on that section of wall, if I can find a way to do it that will allow it to be removed and put back in place without too much difficulty. I don't know whether a pinboard would do much to dampen reverberations. The pinboard would be useful to me for developing visual ideas, but if using the space for dedicated acoustic damping would make the space work better for recording and listening, that may be a compromise I will have to make.

I would also like to mount one or two framed posters on the wall, to make the space more homely and personal, but again, if acoustic panels would make the sound of the room easier to work with, that may be another compromise I will have to make.

I haven't yet bought anything to cover the windows, but I think roller blinds are the only option, which I guess won't do much to change the acoustics. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I know that there is a lot of of bass in the resonance of the room, and there is certainly space in the three corners for bass traps. Should I put bass traps in all three corners? If I can get away without putting a bass trap in the corner to the left of the windows, that would mean that there would be space for a picture above the radiator. Perhaps I could put a flatter acoustic panel on the wall to the left of the French door to catch other frequencies?

Another thing that I could possibly do is create a temporary buffer behind me when I am mixing using the speakers (which will be where they are now, on the desk by the window). I could use a duvet for this, suspended from a bar across a pair of stands that are normally used to hang a cloth green screen for video recording. However setting this up and dismantling this stand would be quite time-consuming, so it is not my favourite option if there is an alternative solution.

I would be really grateful for any advice you can give me.

Here are the photos:
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Heavy duty double curtain track. With vertical strips of black or coloured Bolton twill drapes that run entirely around the perimeter in a circle. The double track means you can overlap the individual curtains and move them around creating different live and dead treatment. If the landlord would let you install this it could be quite flexible and you could have sections where curtain faces curtain, or curtain faces open wall etc. it’s expensive of course, but you can’t tame this room flexibly and non destructively for a low budget. The curtain drops wont do much for the bass end, it will tame it a bit, and make it at least workable.
 
What are the dimensions of this room? You seem to have a lot of plans for it, but it doesn't look that large.
 
Interesting room. The lights dangle straight from the brick vaulting.
What's that thing coming down from the roof, between the round windows?
Much bigger than the space I have.
 
Thanks for all your replies so far.

The space is around 6m × 4m and is part of a larger space that includes a short 2m wide corridor leading to the kitchen.

The thing between the round windows is some kind of square steel bar. It is flat against the wall.

Thanks for the idea about the curtain. I'm having trouble seeing how that could work. I don't really have any space for one. Things are already packed pretty tightly, although I have managed to make that not obvious. There is also the question of what colour curtains. A dark colour would be overpowering, but a light colour would get grubby and be difficult to clean, and probably not even look good to begin with.
 
Heavy drapes on a couple of walls/over the windows will help, but basically you need a ton of trapping - at least 4" thick rockwool or compressed fiberglass in the corners (or super chunks filling the corners) and 2"-4" traps on the walls and suspended from the ceiling. As to mixing, unless you can really stuff that room with traps, headphones will be your best option.
 
Heavy drapes on a couple of walls/over the windows will help, but basically you need a ton of trapping - at least 4" thick rockwool or compressed fiberglass in the corners (or super chunks filling the corners) and 2"-4" traps on the walls and suspended from the ceiling. As to mixing, unless you can really stuff that room with traps, headphones will be your best option.
Thanks for the further info.

When you say I should pack the corners with something dense and heavy, are you talking about the kind of bass traps that you can buy from music shops, or are you suggesting a more homemade solution?

I am also wondering if I could use floor-standing absorber panels to create a smaller space within the room that is less reverberant than the room as a whole. The idea would be that I would put them behind where I sit when I am working at my DAW, but put them out of the way when I am using the room for other things. I imagine that such panels would be helpful for recording, even if they were not so useful for mixing.

And I have another idea. I have a cloth green screen that came with two floor stands and a rod to suspend it from between the floor stands. This is quite time-consuming to set up. So, I have been thinking of putting hooks in the wall to enable me to place the rod on the hooks and have my green screen effectively hanging from the wall when I need it. It occurs to me that I could also use the rod and hooks, along with bulldog clips hanging from hooks of their own, to hang my duvet against the wall when I am working with sound. Would this be worth doing? Using bedding has the advantage over curtains of not requiring extra storage space because it is there anyway.
 
Typical greenscreen cloth is quite thin - I actually Hung all my coloured cloths in my studio and discovered that once you get three of themhanging, the acoustics tighten up no end. More than I imagined, but one didn't do much.
 
Typical greenscreen cloth is quite thin - I actually Hung all my coloured cloths in my studio and discovered that once you get three of themhanging, the acoustics tighten up no end. More than I imagined, but one didn't do much.
That's interesting. I've actually got a green cloth, a white one and a black one. I assumed too that even the three cloths together wouldn't amount to much acoustically, but I will give it a try.
 
First thing I'd do is put a thick rug on the floor. Then I'd put bass/full-range traps around and above the mix area, even if I had to move the desk back 4". Then corner traps anywhere I could fit them.
 
The short section of wall behind the digital piano is the only cavity wall in the space. All the others are solid brick. And as I said before, the floor is solid concrete and the ceiling is vaulted brick.
Well the reason I ask is because, if it is an outside wall with no cavity, then it could be a cold wall. So would need insulating. But you say you want to keep the painted brick look.
 
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Those three layers will make a difference. But, consider how much reflective surface you have and how much cloth. I’ve got three of four layers with overlaps over 3 walls. I’m happy with that as a quick and dirty solution.
 
When you say I should pack the corners with something dense and heavy, are you talking about the kind of bass traps that you can buy from music shops, or are you suggesting a more homemade solution?
Yu can buy them or make them yourself - not hard to do with a few simple tools.
 
One of the best sounding reverbs for vocals I ever heard was in the bathroom of the old Seth Clock factory in Torrington Ct. Exact same type brick structure. Very high ceiling. It had two of those big round stone sinks, big porcelain urinals, commode stalls, and showers in it. The reverb was to die for. Ya'll like that description? Loonier than a shithouse rat eh?
 
One of the best sounding reverbs for vocals I ever heard was in the bathroom of the old Seth Clock factory in Torrington Ct. Exact same type brick structure. Very high ceiling. It had two of those big round stone sinks, big porcelain urinals, commode stalls, and showers in it. The reverb was to die for. Ya'll like that description? Loonier than a shithouse rat eh?
I do like the natural reverb of my place. If I sing a folk song, which I do now and then, it sounds not at all bad. But as soon as there's any bass, things get nasty.
 
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