Craft Studio Progress

I snapped a few shots of my craft room today. Not a ton of progress made in here since the beginning of the year but it's looking a lot better than the before. I'm still loving the robin's egg blue and have found a few ways to incorporate into other parts of the house. LOVING it with RED and WHITE and BROWN!

The little blue thing that you see there near the ceiling at the windows is a snowflake left over from the party, lol. I need to get the big ladder in and take it down. I didn't think to put the switchplate covers back on until *after* I took the photos, either. :)






That old vent needs to be replaced or repainted. At some point, I hope to have a large, tall cubby/shelving unit right there to hold supplies and inventory. We have something like that in the garage and it's so ugly (bright yellow!) but solid wood and very spacious. I'm thinking about adding molding and trim and additional shelving to it as the current cubby holes are very large and could be divided into halves or even thirds. With a beadboard back and then painted out in a fresh, bright white, I think it could be beautiful piece, though. The problem is that it now holds and organizes a lot of things for us in the garage. I would have to do some shuffling and rearranging, for sure.



My project for this week will be painting the stoop and stair treads a deep chocolate brown. The stair faces will be white.



Here is the craft table hubs is working on for me. It needs a little more trim and maybe a wooden applique on the front of the skirt (kind of like what we are putting on our doors, except a little bigger). I will be painting the craft table white and have a glass top to go on it for easy cleanup.



I will be sure to share photos when the steps are completed. I'm excited about chocolate brown and hope it looks as good on the steps as it does in my head!

Cottage Studio Ceiling Makeover Completed

First I'd like to thank all of you who stopped in and supported my blog sale last week! Your items have either already arrived or are due to arrive any day now. You may not realize it, but you've helped me take another step in accomplishing my business goals. Thank you so much!

Now, about that studio... We've actually been finished with the ceiling and walls for a little while now. We painted the walls a nice robin's egg blue and added additional trimwork to the steps. I still have a bunch of junk that I need to move out of the space before I can get some good photos of the entire studio so far, but I did snap a few shots of the ceiling. If you remember, we once had old skylights that were removed when we replaced our roof. This left four ugly plywood holes in the ceiling and I wasn't sure how I could make them look attractive until we could afford to redo the entire ceiling someday down the road. We also had a very ugly (and dusty!) ceiling fan and a couple of equally ugly lights that needed to be addressed. Replacing them was not an option because as usual, our budget is so tiny it's practically nonexistent:)

So here is the studio ceilng "BEFORE"....






And here it is "AFTER"....

(Click photos below to enlarge)






Despite the challenges and limitations, I think the ceiling makeover turned out pretty well! Hubs did a great job turning those plywood holes into "windows", didn't he? I painted a subtle sky background and used a stencil to add my sparrow. As for the light and fan makeover, thank goodness for my trusty brown camouflage paint! With a matte clear coat, they look like oil rubbed bronze fixtures! I did another fan makeover in my living room about three years ago with a different type of oil based paint, and let me tell you, what I used this time around was MUCH easier and faster! (I have a little bird - my Ginger - on my shoulder right now or else I'd go to the garage and check the spray can, but I believe it's either Rustoleum or Krylon brown camouflage paint. I got mine at Wal-Mart.)

Hubs has already built one of my craft tables. It just needs a few pieces of trim and it's ready to paint. It's got a tongue and groove pine top and is very farmhouse in style. Here is a shot of the table top before he put it all together. He cut the "tongue" part off and will add trim around the perimeter side edge of the tabletop. I thought about some kind of rope moulding but I think I'll probably just stick with plain, flat trim to keep the look simple. I have a glass top to go right on top for easy cleanup as I'm a very messy crafter. I look forward to being able to see our dining room table again because that's where all of my stuff has been for weeks!



I hope everyone is staying warm! We started using our fireplace this week and it's never been more welcomed!

Cottage Hallway Progress + Garden Cake Fun

Wow, so many nice warm welcomes and encouragement from all of you last week - that's so sweet:) Sometimes I think my house is out to get me but I know that's not true - I know it wants to be completed just as much as I want it to be! Thank you for your kind words of support!

Another busy week here at our cottage in the making... I've been into a little of this and that and everything, from Goodwill "treasure makeovers" (I'll share those later) to cake making to shopping for business supplies to mudding drywall in our hallway. It seems that the only time I can be still is when I sit and visit with my birds while I drink my coffee in the morning!

So do you remember how short our hallway ceiling was before we removed the old ceiling? Literally, the ceiling sat right up above the door trim as you can see from the next two pictures.





After ripping out the old ceiling, we added the new drywall. I worked on mudding a bit this week. Here is the hallway thus far... It's strange how just a foot in height can really open up a space.



I made another garden cake and thought I'd share. These are so fun to make! This particular cake was lemon with lemon curd filling....MMMM! I used Duncan Hines Butter cake mix, lemon buttercream frosting, and the filling (below) from this recipe.

Lemon Curd Filling
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon cornstarch
6 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup white sugar
4 egg yolks, beaten

To make filling: In medium saucepan, mix together 1 tablespoon lemon zest, 1/2 cup lemon juice and 1 tablespoon cornstarch until smooth. Mix in 6 tablespoons butter and 3/4 cup sugar, and bring mixture to boil over medium heat. Boil for one minute, stirring constantly. In small bowl, with a wire whisk, beat egg yolks until smooth. Whisk in a small amount of the hot lemon mixture. Pour the egg mixture into the sauce pan, beating the hot lemon mixture rapidly. Reduce heat to low; cook, stirring constantly, 5 minutes, or until thick (not to boil). Pour mixture into medium bowl. Press plastic wrap onto surface to keep skin from forming as it cools. Cool to room temperature. Refrigerate 3 hours.







I received a couple of questions last week that I want to make sure I answer:):

I do have one question, all your photos are perfect quality and look like they are from a magazine, what kind of camera are you using? Do you have special photography flash's you are using?~Thanks!
Kristine

Thanks for the compliment, Kristine. The truth is, I hate having to photograph anything because photography is really tricky for me. My camera is big with lots of options and lenses- and that sometimes overwhelms me. It's an older Digital Rebel, though, and it's a great camera. The newer ones are suppose to be really awesome! I usually try to photograph in lots of natural sunlight and don't use a flash. I also use a tripod when I can to avoid blurry photos. THEN if my photos still turn out too dark, I upload them to Pixenate and select the "fill light" icon to add a bit more "natural" light to my photos without washing them out. Oh to just shoot and upload photos without all that fuss! No wonder it takes me so long to update my blog!

Would you give us a quick comment on those spools? I have saved wooden spools from my mother -- a great seamstress -- and this looks like a wonderful thing to do with them.
lucia

Lucia, these spools are so fun and easy to alter. I simply painted the spools, distressed them with sandpaper, and then measured the inner length and diameter of the spool. I found pretty scrapbooking paper, cut them to my measurments, and glued them around the spools. Lastly, I printed out some of my favorite words to glue to the paper seam. Easy Peasy! If you try this, let me know...I'd love to see your altered spools!


I love the (robin's egg blue) color!!! You'll have to post the ingredient label, so we all can enjoy it in our homes! ~Ambrea



Ambrea, I am so loving this color, too, and would love to share the ingredients! I looked on my can and I don't know if this will help you or not, but this is what it says on the top:

Manual Dispense One Gallon
107-17.5
101-13
103-10.5
Valspar Eggshell Base 1

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Cottage Studio Before Photos

I know everyone has probably seen photos of my sunroom / office / future craft studio a million times, but for the sake of comparison later, I wanted to share some photos of my "studio in progress". We're coming up on the second weekend of work in here and I was able to get a head start on it last night and today.

By the way, if you'd like to see the *BEFORE* before photos (that is, what the space looked like months ago when I was just dreaming of a studio), just click here.

I took out the banister and carpet on the steps quite a while back, but last weekend we patched the walls as well as insulated the ceiling where the old sky lights use to be. We removed the poorly installed skylights years ago when we replaced the roof and will someday even remove the current old ceiling. The beadboard is ok (I love beadboard!) but it's the thin imitation beadboard and wasn't exactly installed with the greatest of care. So for now, we are left with recessed "patches" on the ceiling, as I call them. My solution to the eyesores was to paint a sky mural within each of the square holes to give the effect of skylights. I painted the murals today but will show them to you later:) I still have one sweet detail to add, plus this weekend hubs will be adding a nice wide moulding around the perimeter of each skylight. When the moulding is up, caulked, and painted, I'll take some photos. But I will tell you that I LOVE how the murals have turned out so far. I didn't know what I was going to do with those big ugly plywood holes, but I really think the murals were just the right solution.

So this is what the studio looked like last night. I apologize for the dark photos - I rarely photograph at night for this reason. It is a small space for sure, but I think the tall ceilings and lots of natural light will make the studio feel less cramped.





(Has anyone seen my ladder?)





What is really exciting for me is that I've finally figured out a color scheme! The walls are *not* going to be the same as kitchen and living room as I thought I would probably choose. I'm going to keep it a little secret until after they are painted, but if you have any good guesses or opinions, I'd love to hear them! I will say that the accent colors I'll be using are white, off-white, and chocolate brown (neutrals that go with just about any color, I think). Choosing paint colors is soooo hard - there are too many options!

So what colors would you choose for this space?

Studio Work Begins!

We started on my studio last weekend, and boy, what a lot of work! I'll be sure to post photos when there is something interesting to photograph:) For now, we've mainly been working on patching the walls and insulating the parts of the ceiling that weren't completely insulated. Work continues this weekend:) There were once sky lights in the studio room...and now there are just plywood "patches" that are quite the eyesores! We removed the skylights when we added a new roof a few years back and have been waiting to deal with the interior holes when we redo the ceiling. We're not ready for that, so I've had to come up with a creative way to make those square patches look like they belong. I finally decided that I would (try to) paint a pretty cloudy sky mural within each of the four squares and trim it out in a nice crisp white moulding. Hopefully the effect will realistic - we shall see! I hope to tackle that soon (this weekend or next) so I'll be sure to post some before and afters! I'm so anxious to have the studio finished because my materials and creations are taking over the rest of the house!

Hubs was also able to get around to mudding the seams of the new drywall in the hallway. Still lots of sanding, reapplying mud, sanding, etc., to go, but it looks sooo much better already! I can't believe we can walk down the hall now without seeing a single stud!

I've been experimenting with my faux creations and wanted to share one of them - a chocolate cupcake - with you...You can read more about it on my faux dessert blog if you like.











Thanks for dropping in! I hope everyone is doing well!

Another Cottage Project: Raising the Hallway Ceiling

We had a very productive (albeit messy, hot, and exhausting ) weekend here at our Twice Remembered Cottage. We got started with our hallway project! Our hall is very long and what made it very unappealing to me was it's extremely low ceiling. I'm only about 5'5" and I could literally touch the ceiling without much effort. It has long been our goal to someday raise the ceiling there, which I hoped would visually open up the narrow space a bit. This weekend, we did just that.

So here is where we started - our very gloomy and sometimes scary hallway. We've gone ahead and replaced all the hollow core doors with solid pine doors except for that one there on the right...we're working in that particular room (expanding a closet) and have waited to put up the door there until we're ready to also put up the new closet door. Anyway, can you see how close the ceiling is to the top of doors? There is absolutely no room for the beefy 5 inch wide door trim I want to add around the doors - and no room for crown moulding and a pine plank ceiling either. Clearly, the ceiling needed to be raised.



The first cut... Who knew cutting through popcorn could be so easy and exciting?




There's no going back now!




This photo reveals the air conditioning duct work! This would have been a problem, but don't worry... this is unused duct work from the old original air conditioning system installed 30 years ago. A new system (with duct work under our floor) was added several years back and the old one remained to fossilize in our ceiling, I suppose. But this explains why the ceiling was so low to begin with. Fortunately hubby had crawled into the attic to investigate well before we decided to tackle this project:)



I thought I'd take a photo of the "big mess" being created already. But compared to what was to come, this was nothing!



Within minutes, the old drywall was completely removed from the ceiling and we could get a good view of the old metal monster that was hiding above.... I had to help hubs remove the duct work and I was so afraid it was going to fall on my head! I had to hold one end as I stood on a ladder while hubs unscrewed it from the center and other end. Talk about scary!





Our first good view of our new ceiling height! Whew, it sure was dirty up there!



Another whole foot added to the ceiling height - from 7 feet to 8 feet just like that!





The metal monster wasn't so intimidating when it wasn't hanging by a few screws above my head.



Now to begin ripping out the hall walls...




See what I meant about it getting messier?



A good friend came by and helped hubs hang the drywall for the new ceiling. I tried but have absolutely no upper body strength and proved to be a pretty puny and clumsy helper. Hubs forgot to cut the hole for the light but he can go back and do that. I'm thinking about hanging an old fashioned baby chandelier, but hubs isn't thrilled. I think it will grow on him;)



I love the results so far - the hall really feels so much more spacious now! I really can't wait to add our plank ceilings and crown moulding, tall white beadboard, wide door trim (with maybe a nifty antique metal number above each door..."Where is your bathroom?" ...."Oh, it's down the hall, Room 2."), and of course, our long awaited wood flooring. But this is where we leave of for now because today, Monday, it's business as usual for hubs and his real job. We'll save the walls for another free weekend. I hope you enjoyed this little tour of our most recent cottage transformation project!