Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The Big Studio Reveal

After waiting patiently nine months (not) for my studio to be carved out of the gigantic basement in our new home, I'm thrilled that it is finally finished. This is what the basement looked like the day before we moved in when it was turned it into a huge storage space for 170 boxes of my precious junque.
After the movers left, the basement looked like this. Yikes!
The contractor finished up last week and since then Howie and I have been setting up the cabinets and worktables. Thank goodness for IKEA.
This is the same view as the first picture. The French doors at the end of the hall lead to the studio. The door that you see on the left leads to Howie's "Man Cave."

The "Welcome" banner was a special gift from my good friend Kathy McElroy. Kathy sent this to me just after we moved in and I've been waiting to put it up until the studio was finished. Today was the day! I felt as if I was christening a ship with a bottle of champagne when I tacked it up. It's now official. The studio is open and welcomes all kindred spirits who wish to come and "art" with me.

As you enter the studio, on the left is a wall of doors. What's behind the doors?

Lots and lots of glorious shelf space soon to filled with what's been residing in the 170 boxes. Of course, I know it all won't fit in the space I have so I will have to be creative and find some good hiding spaces for the overflow. The picture above is the left wall of the studio as you enter. Look how clean and neat it is! It won't be for long. I'm going to use this area for sewing and paper crafts since most of the supplies for that will be housed in the big closet. The table in the middle of the room (with the blue tablecloth) will be a great place to sit and create when then there is more than one person working in the studio.
This is a view of the far wall with another workspace. I'm planning on using this area for my polymer clay and jewelry projects. Moving around to the right is another surface soon to be cluttered up. This is where my computer is going.
And last but not least, this is the area to the right of the door when you enter the room. Yes, it's already filled with boxes of junque waiting to be unpacked. When this area is unpacked, Howie is going to put in cabinets, a counter top and a sink. No more running back and forth to the kitchen or bathroom to wash out brushes.

You'll notice that I chose Daffodil Yellow for the walls of the studio. I had a hard time trying to pick a color that worked for me. For some reason, I kept gravitating towards yellow. Thank goodness that you can now audition a color by buying a small sample from the paint store because the first yellow I tried looked horrific. When I tried this one, it was love at first sight. It was only after the room was painted and I looked around that I realized that this was the same color as my mother's kitchen when I was growing up. My mother's kitchen was always a happy place for me, and I guess that subconsciously when I was choosing a color this yellow made me the happiest.

I'd love to have you come and join me in the studio. So when are you coming?