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!

Who I Haven't Forgotten...

You, dear readers. Though I'm sure you may have thought that I had.

For those that have followed my blog for years or have blogs of your own, you know that sometimes this happens - this business of going for weeks without a single update.

In my excitement over my studio room redo and my just knowing that at least this project would be quick and painless and over with in no time flat, I failed to remember that it would take an act of the Almighty for us to work through any remodeling plans in a timely manner and without a hitch. Can I just say that hubs and I have had many serious "discussions" over the s l o w progress of our cottage in the making. We seem to have two different views, many times, of how quickly a project should move along. Between real work and life, the reality is that maybe in a months time, five to eight hours may be dedicated to a project. So this is my reality and it has been since we've moved here. I think had I known this is the way it would be, I would have been content to live in our regular 70's made ranch just the way it was. But who knows...maybe when we are finally finished, I'll be glad that we struggled through each and every project, large and small. Maybe I'll say..."It was all worth it." Maybe I'll say that it was ok that we lived with a gutted bathroom for five years because once we finally finished, it was all that I could have ever wished for. Maybe I'll be glad that we lived for years without any real flooring as our beautiful hardwood sat untouched in the garage while we finished up the "dirty work" inside. Just know that right now I am extremely envious of all of you who are able to complete remodeling project from start to finish in a reasonable amount of time. You have my undying admiration! We, however, are not one of those types of people.

So in my disappointment and discouragement, I couldn't bear to write and update my blog. I hope that you have been there or at least understand.

We had to paint the studio three times, of course. I ended up using a custom robin's egg blue that I created myself even before I had painted the swatches you saw in my last post. My color had a bit more green in it and a little less blue - which is what I wanted. We painted the whole room out and needed just one more coat but ran out of paint. But when we had another custom gallon mixed and on the walls, it wasn't the same color as what hubs had already cut in in the corners and along the trim. Soooo....we had to buy another gallon and paint the entire room again. Much better! A couple of weekends hub was out of town, so no real work in the studio took place because I cannot for the life of me paint trim without getting it on the walls. Hubs put the second coat of white trim paint on last weekend, thinking the painting would finally be *done*, but it still needs another coat. Though the steps and stoop have been primed, I'm going to hold off painting them until last because I don't won't hubs work boots marring them up. The fan and lights have been painted for weeks now and I've been dying to have them installed, but I guess I'm going to have to practice patience for a bit longer. I don't want to take photos of the studio so far until they are up and the last of the trim paint is done, but it has turned out nice so far. If you look at one of the photos of the kitchen below, you can get a sneak peak of the studio walls if you look through the french door to the right. Who knew red and robin's egg blue could work so well together?! I'm not going to make predictions on when we'll start building the work stations as hubs has another trip coming up. I just hold my breath and hope that we can begin sometime this month maybe. My plans to officially start my business this year have once again been foiled. Hubs says I should "create product" anyway, but that's not how I work when supplies and stuff are strewn everywhere because they don't have a home and proper organization - and it looks like all my "spare" time needs to be spent on trying to help him work on the room.

I do, however, have photos to share. Just little vignettes I photographed today and recently. I have a new found love of robin's egg blue and have begun collecting and making accessories to use throughout the cottage. Also, I've completed two Wilton cake decorating courses and wanted to share with you the last cake I made for class. I'm making a similar one today for hubs grandmother:)







I made these spools well over a year ago. I love words and old-fashioned style paper, so this was a nice way to bring the two elements together.





I painted the birds with my custom color but the creamer I found at Goodwill - it is my exact blue!



I thought about shooing this moth away before I took this shot, but she was frantically flying about the kitchen lights last night when I was baking some cookies...I was glad to see that she had found a peaceful, safe spot to rest so I left her:)







(This is the photo from which you can see the robin's egg blue studio walls...)






We worked on our cakes in class. We learned the basket weave technique and promptly applied it to our cakes. Mine leaves a lot to be desired, lol! My frosting softened too much as I held the decorating bag in my warm hands, but thank goodness for lots of flowers to cover it up!








Thanks for continuing to stop in and for all the emails and nudges I've received:) Thanks so much!

Cottage Studio Layout and Color

So far, I'm very pleased with what's been happening in the studio the last couple of weekends. Though I wish work could go a little faster, I guess I'll have to work on being content with slow and steady instead. The ceiling is 99% complete with just a little touch up work and fan and light installation to go. On Saturday, hubs was finally able to find my Krylon brown camouflage paint (which looks just like oil rubbed bronze when topcoated with a matte sealer) and the fans and lights will be complete as soon as I seal them.

I've been working on my chairs. I *thought* I took a good before shot of them but I can't find the photos anywhere on the computer. I have one chair left that I haven't worked on so I'll be sure to photograph it beside one of the "new" madeover chairs for comparisons sake. Here is a snapshot that I was able to find, along with some old table legs I'm planning on using for my desk. These chairs where probably pretty back in the 70's, don't you think? Now, though, they're just...Ugh! I have four of them and they came with a small dining room set that I bought at Goodwill quite a while ago. The table and four chairs were just $20, I do believe! I cut the table legs down and it became my coffee table for the living room, but I wasn't quite sure where I'd use those chairs. The studio will be the perfect place! I just can't believe what paint can do for outdated furniture.

I thought you might be interested in knowing what the layout of my new space will be. My studio space is small and just about every square inch will be utilized. In the middle of the room will be a rolling work table (with leaves that fold down). I decided that since we never use one of the big sliding doors and because I have so little wall space to begin with, a work table and shelving unit will completely cover it up. I'm just going to add white light blocking roller blinds to the glass doors (for a cohesive view from the exterior) and treat it as a wall. It will completely disappear once the units are in place. I get plenty of light from the other sliding door on the opposite side of the room and there are three small windows (six total) near the ceiling on both sides of the room as well.



I said I would wait until the room was painted before I'd reveal the new room color, but that probably won't be until this weekend and I just don't want to wait! I've painted the corners of the room and several large "samples" on all the walls. Did anyone guess Robin's Egg Blue? Yummmm! This photo doesn't do the color justice, but I'm absolutely thrilled with it. I designed a new banner for my future shop and my walls will coordinate with it:)


On the business front, I've been far too busy working on the studio to create much - and most of my supplies are boxed up. But I did finally make something I've been wanting to try for a while now. They are custom cupcake wrappers.I call them Cupcake Hugs! I'm going to have a lot of fun making these:)





I hope everyone is having a good week so far!

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?