So glad to have an IKEA right here!

When I first moved into my home, I looked for shelving that I found both attractive and seemed to fit with the craftsman style of the house. Oh, and that was reasonably priced. Oddly enough, my favorite shelves I found at IKEA (which had only recently opened in Portland around the time I moved - and conveniently is just a couple of miles from me!).

Now, nearly 5 years later, as I'm setting up my studio space I know I want to get similar shelves for the studio, since they have worked so well for me and my stash. Oh, and a new table for my second sewing machine, and maybe a little comfy chair to relax in... You all know how it goes, right?

So last Monday J spent the early part of the day with me, driving the rental U-Haul in a sort of triangular route, from the pick-up spot, to IKEA, then to my house to load my current sewing and cutting tables, plus a few of the baskets of fabric, and then we were off to the studio space to unload.




Tuesday and Wednesday of this week I was at work, so I didn't get back in there until Thursday to start putting stuff together.
The table top alone was too heavy for me to really lift, so now that I have this together, I still need to wait for someone to help me flip it over without snapping the legs off.

One of the lovely, versatile Expedit shelves.



And of course, in the process of using tools with heavy boards, accidents will happen. This looks much worse than it actually was - got a cardboard papercut on the inside of one finger, and scraped the knuckle on my thumb. As I was not prepared with Band-Aids I had to throw together some make-shift bandages from what I did have around - paper towels and blue painter's tape. It did the trick well enough to allow me to finish my job for the day, which is all I could ask for.

I got 3 of the 4 shelving units put together on Thursday, and came back to finish it up Friday, and to hopefully get some of my fabric put away, so I'll be ready to work after this weekend... I think I'm on track!



This is just the follow-up fabric that wasn't already in baskets or fabric drawers... Maybe I could work on whittling down this stash one of these days.








The walls are still looking a bit bare, but in time, in time. Just have to get more quilts hung, and see what other decorations make their way to my space. But for now, I have 2 dowels up with quilts displayed:



Design wall - CHECK!

Another update about the studio progress... Now that the painting is complete (I got that last little bit of the floor leading up to the door covered on Thursday afternoon), it's time to get to work on the design wall. Last weekend my friend Julia helped me with a trip to Home Depot, where I picked up two 4' x 8' soundproofing boards to use as the base for said design wall.


Earlier in the week I had picked up some Thermolam (or similar product... I keep forgetting which one I decided on) with which to cover these boards. Much of my struggle in getting this started was actually figuring out the darned staple gun. It took me WAY TOO LONG to get this working, but once I finally got one staple out, the rest were almost fun!




Unfortunately, the width of the batting was just shy of the width of the boards


which meant I had to make another trip to pick up one more 3 yd. length of batting to finish these guys off in a proper way. After a little cutting, and more stapling the boards were ready to mount on the wall. Thank goodness I brought the old boom box over yesterday, which served as the perfect stand for me to get these just the right distance from the floor before putting my hammer and nails to work. When I left the space this afternoon, I left it with a proper (if not perfect) design wall!


Oh, and had to hang one burst of color - a painting that had been my grandmother's. It ain't a happy work space without some art on the walls!


Studio painting - Day Five

And now, the walls are covered from floor to ceiling. Hoorah!

I was so ready to blow off painting last night and go in there today to finish things up, but J convinced me otherwise, and I'm glad he did (especially since he was the one who would end up doing most of the work in this stretch).







So today, we get a day off (which means I'll likely go down to the basement and actually do some sewing - a novel idea, I know!) The only thing left to do before moving stuff in, is to clean and finish painting the floor - something I thankfully don't need a ladder for! Thursday's task, as I see it.

new accessories!

So, with all of this prep work to get the sewing studio ready for actually moving in to, I've been thinking a lot about what I will be moving in to the space. I've already made two trips to IKEA just to check out table, shelving and office chair options, so that when I actually have the rental truck I know exactly what I'm going in for.

But, there will also be a couple of pieces of furniture I'll be moving from my house... my current sewing cabinet and cutting table, of course, but in addition I have an arm chair and coffee table that have outgrown my little craftsman bungalow. And what does an armchair need?? Maybe a throw pillow or two??






I'd been eyeing that Alexander Henry fabric for quite a while, and found that the Kaffe Shot Cottons work beautifully as accents. They will be excellent splashes of color in the studio space, and would just as easily work in my living room area at home if the time comes. Love the versatility!

Studio painting - Day Two

So, we started the day with most of the walls fully primed - except some nooks and crannies, behind beams and up high.


and as I said before, I had some color decisions to make.... I started editing my options, and discarding the "rejects" on the floor

until I was left with the final 2 contenders:


I ended up going with "Bay Waves" by Valspar, from Lowe's. So, J and I made a trip out there, picking up 6 gallons of paint, plus a few accoutrements, as well as six 8' full-spectrum strip lights for the fixtures (J changed out the bulbs in one of the three fixtures as soon as we got back to the studio).

While J worked on finishing the primer details, I got started on the edge work with the paint.




Then our friend Jenny joined us, and took up a roller!




We worked until a little after 9pm, I think, and got the first layer of color down, from the floor up about as high as either Jenny or I could reach with the 4'+ roller on our tippy-toes (and a few hops on Jenny's part)...



Gonna give it a couple days' rest, then return for day 3 of painting... I'm feeling good about it so far!

New Studio - Before Pics

And today I picked up the keys for the new space! This is also the first I have taken photos, as it was previously occupied by a small theatre company, and therefore had a stage and counter taking up much of the space.






Next step - PAINTING PARTY!!! And thankfully the building manager has promised to leave one of those crazy A-Frame ladders for us to use for that purpose. Now starting to load the back of my car with supplies from home, but still have to decide on just the right shade of light grey or off white or whatever. It's a good thing I'll have to use a layer or two of primer first, giving me plenty of time to decide on the finished color while actually in the space...

I promise to keep posting progress.