So...here are the photos of my studio renovation so far. This is Part I. The photos were taken a few nights before the contractors came. This is what my studio looked like after all the STUFF was taken out. We did take the computer equipment out before they started working. The place looks pretty clean (at least to me...you should have seen it before) but my family room and living room is FILLED with large containers of art, papers, books and STUFF plus my storage bins of about 18 years of cartoon strips and my drawing board and tool trolley. This is my computer station where I spend far too much time...
In all following photos, you might notice the clock always say it's about fourteen minutes to eleven. It's said that for the past few years...I gotta change that battery...anyway-there was a table under the vertical blinds that held a lot of STUFF. I'm getting rid of that table and my drawing board will go under the window. To the right, you can see the unused hallway space that I want to utilize and part of the wall I want to knock down. The doorway is a pocket door and this where my drawing board was. (in front of the pocket door)
The other side of the pocket door and then the weird closet. It opens here in my studio and then on the opposite side too. I want to extend the opening of the closet on my studio side and seal off the opening on the other side. To the right of the closet is the main entrance to my studio. As you come downstairs, this door is to your immediate left.
Looking into my studio from the other side of the closet. (This is the wall I want to seal off) When my daughter was about two years old she used to peak through this opening to "surprise" me. :)
Now I have shut the (other opening) of the closet door and you can see the hallway and the side door entrance that we never use. The wall on the left of hallway is the wall to be knocked down. This is the extra space I will gain. And there's Newman. Notice the ceiling light in the hallway. Totally useless. It is a lightbulb stuck up among the duct work. The electrican and I debated and debated what to do about the light in this area. We figured something out a few days later. (couldn't put in pot lights because of the duct work) Our family room is to the right. The door on the extreme left will be replaced with door with beveled glass...at some point.
Part II! YAY!! The walls are down! I couldn't believe how much brighter the room was just by having the extra natural light from the door window.
They have opened the space for my studio closet and have put up the framing to close off the hallway. They will make a smaller closet on the other side of the hallway for family use. You can never have too much closet space!
Finishing up the ceiling. See the square opening in the middle of the ceiling? We finally decided to just seal up that opening where the useless lighting was. Electricity shut off there and now it just looks like an attic entrance. I had extra lighting put in the main area of the ceiling and with the extra door light...it just wasn't necessary. If I need extra light for whatever table/shelf/storage I ultimately put against this wall, I'll just buy some type of lamp.
I had a 4 foot fluorescent bulb in the ceiling...this was removed and the electrician has wired for two lighting fixtures.
Things are a little more cleaned up...you can see one of the ceiling light fixtures on the left...there are two like this. I CAN SEE!
Newman...how did you get in there? Nosy dog...
The hallway is now sealed off...the sliding doors are in. I originally wanted the contractor to build three shelves in the closet. However, there was a problem with not having sufficient frame work to attach shelves to...so we opted to leave as an open closet and I'm going to buy an insert for the shelving.
That's it so far. Next on the list is finding and having carpet installed, removing wallpaper and painting ceiling and walls. Then I'll move things in a bit at a time...organize as I go. This way I can either file or throw out STUFF as needed.
The Graphic Medicine Conference and a short family vacation put everything on hold for the past few weeks. I need to carpet shop now...hopefully I'll have things finished and in order by the end of September.
Oh yes...any decorators out there? I have ZERO colour sense. (I didn't put in the carpet and the yellow wall doesn't look quite so yellow in real life...it's called "Desert Sand"...it's the colour in our family room. I know the colour carpet I want...its a very neutral beige colour. I'm thinking of painting the yellow wall some type of deep red and the rest of the walls a much lighter Desert Sand colour...much, much lighter. Trim is in white. OR...maybe paint the yellow wall a chocolate brown with lighter desert sand colour. I dunno. I open to any ideas.
Sandra -
I tend to like either saturated colors or off whites on my walls. Saturated colors do tend to suck up light so keep that in mind, but all those neutrals can be really boring and uninspiring. Plus they never make you feel either warm or cold, just bland.
Posted by: Peg Cherre | August 15, 2012 at 08:23 AM
Wow, that looks like a big project!! But it'll be SO satisfying to have it all done.
We spent a lot of time this summer turning my husband's workshop (aka "the family STUFF repository") into a study for when he goes back to school this winter. It definitely got worse before it got better!! But that sense of accomplishment when looking at the finished product is worth all the hassle. :) Good luck with the rest of your project!!
Posted by: StriderGirl | August 09, 2012 at 10:52 AM