The Studio Reveal!

What began as a storage building....

...was lovingly (thank you Sweet Hubby) transformed into a bright studio space...

...which was then filled to rafters with LOTS of whimsical, colorful, creative possibilities...it has become my dream studio, and I couldn't be happier!!

(Please keep scrolling - there are LOTS more photos - you can click any photo to enlarge it and see more details)

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I'm bringing the story of the studio transformation full circle today as I participate in Susan's Metamorphosis Monday. In addition, I am participating for the first time in Rhoda's Today's Thrifty Treasures because 95% of everything you will see on this tour was a thrifted treasure. I'll point out the highlights as I go along...(you may want to grab a hot beverage of your choice and get comfy - there are a LOT of photos!!)

I'll start off to the left as you enter the studio door...I've set up a work table against the wall in this space for projects that will need to be spread out...

I framed three of my illustrations with thrifted frames painted black with white polka dots added for whimsy...

Notice the peg rack in the previous photo? Here's how it looked before the transformation...

I paid $1 for the peg rack at an outdoor flea market and $.50 each for the pastel tin buckets at an estate sale. I knew I wanted some storage near the work table, but I wanted something colorful and fun...so I was delighted to find both of these goodies just in the last week.  I cut the peg rack down a bit (it was almost 6 feet long), spray painted it pink, then added white polka dots for fun, and attached two sawtooth hangers to the back. All I did with the buckets was punch two holes in each with a tin punch and thread wired gingham ribbon that I already had through the holes and tie it in a bow onto the peg - pretty easy stuff.  I LOVE how it turned out!!

Further in the studio on the left is the desk area. I flanked my desk (which I've had for years) with two oak bookcases which I already had as well...

I decorated the desk area with all of my favorite kitschy 70's framed embroidery pieces and of course my voluminous collection of stuffed animals  :o)

The paint rack (above) was another awesome thrifted find - just $15.00...and that INCLUDES all the paint you see there - between the front and back of the rack there are 104 bottles of paint, 90% of which are brand new, never opened!! Needless to say I was thrilled with this purchase...

I cut up and used a vintage cutter quilt with cute butterflies as valances on all the windows (easy, no sew project)...I also draped a few vintage embroidered linens over the curtain rod too...

The back third of the studio is mostly storage for all the many china, glass, lamps, and wood pieces awaiting transformation...as well as boxes and boxes of laces, trims, jewelry bits, beads and numerous other crafty goodies...

Moving around now to the right side of the studio you'll see one of my favorite thrifted treasures of all time - my $30 couch! I WISH I had taken a before photo...but trust me, the fabric was not the prettiest...but the couch's bones were good and it was solid...

So with a $19.99 king size discount store quilt, and pieces of leftover bargain quilt that I already had (you may recall I used it to make no-sew valances for my livingroom), my Mom and I tucked and tacked and managed to fashion a no-sew slipcover of sorts for it. I used a couple of flower pins that I had on hand to "gather" the slipcover around the arms of the couch...

Finishing out the right side of the studio is a creamy yellow $25.00 garage sale dresser and mirror which provides even more storage...the drawers are filled with fabric...

And finally, the last corner of the studio...this is an oak corner shelf I already had...

I filled it with more fabric, vintage tablecloths, vintage quilts, and ribbon...

Whew!!  That's the whole thing!! I hope you enjoyed your tour as much as I enjoyed sharing it with you! This project has been a real labor of love, and I am DELIGHTED with how it all came together!!

I simply MUST say thank you to the Lord for His provision, His guidance, and His inspiration for this project - to HIM be all the Glory!!

"He has made everything beautiful in its time..."

Ecclesiastes 3:11

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Now, it's a race to Thursday, October 1st when we open our space at Whispering Willow Gifts and Antiques...lots of gathering, pricing, and re-purposing left to do before then, but it'll be a lot of fun!  I'll be sure to share photos of our space set up next week!  We're so excited!!

Now please head over to Between Naps on the Porch for more Met Monday transformations and Southern Hospitality for more Thrifty Treasures - thanks again to Susan and Rhoda for being such gracious hostesses week to week!!

And thank YOU so much for stopping by...I'd love to hear what you think!!

Have a blessed week friends!!

Studio Sneak Peek

Thanks Maddie for being a guest columnist this week - I assure you, life is just about to be back to "normal" around here. The studio is complete and your Daddy and I have begun the preparations for the opening of our boutique space at Whispering Willow this Thursday!!  It has been an incredibly busy few weeks and you have been a very patient little pup! (and YOU have been a very patient little reader!!) Thank you!!

I am going to do a full studio reveal tomorrow night/Monday morning for Susan's Metamorphosis Monday with TONS of photos, but I just couldn't wait one minute longer to show you just a hint of how the studio turned out...it is SUCH a fun room...I couldn't be happier!!!!

(I'll keep commentary to a minimum so I can get this up quickly...)

We now have a place for all the fun supplies and projects-in-waiting...

...and lots of personal touches that make me smile and keep me inspired...

Much, much more to come in the full reveal - I hope you will stop by again late tomorrow/early Monday morning to see it all!!!  Thank you so much for coming along this fun journey with me...it's been a long road, but the experience has been SO worth it!!

Hugs & Blessings to all of you!!!

Mom and Her Dumb Studio (a guest post by Maddie)

Hi, this is Maddie, and since my Mommy is busy AGAIN in her studio, I thought I'd better step in and let you know what she's up to...

She's busy every single day morning until night doing something called "organizing" and something called "decorating" in her dumb studio. All I know is she is no fun when she is doing those things...sure she plays with me sometimes, but not nearly enough for me....  She seems to prefer playing in that room of hers. :o(

I'm just waiting for this whole studio thing to be over so we can get back to normal....

I hope you're not getting too sick of waiting, although I sure couldn't blame you...I know just how you feel...

Mom told me that the wait wouldn't be much longer...maybe just one more day...she said she "promises"...I've heard that before!! There is one glimmer of hope today though...she brought the camera over to the studio, and she usually has the camera out when something good is about to happen...

We'll see...

Meanwhile, please don't give up...maybe our long wait is about to be over. I sure hope so...

Thanks for stopping by!

Love and doggie kisses,

Maddie

Remembering Ike

This is the backyard of our former home in Houston one year ago today when Hurricane Ike hit Galveston and Houston...and we had it good comparatively. The first two photos show the destruction by a fallen tree of a playhouse that came with the house when I bought it...I always intended to turn the playhouse into a cute potting shed, but, oh well, so much for that idea. You know what though, the Lord was not only meciful to us and my whole family through this ordeal, but a year later He even gave me something better than a playhouse-turned-potting-shed - He gave me a storage-building-turned-studio, and let me tell you, it's a real dream come true! I can assure you, in the midst of chaos, wreckage, loss, and brokenness, there is something better, sweeter, and more beautiful around the corner when you put your trust in Jesus. You cannot see it just yet, but you can have faith that it is there and that He has you in His loving arms, carrying you over the wreckage and into your promised land. He's all about beauty from brokenness...

Here's a link to a series of posts about my remembrance of the approach of Ike, our evacuation, and the aftermath of the storm. It was quite an adventure. Please keep the region in your prayers - there are still many folks who are impacted by the losses they sustained even a year later....thank you.

By the way, after we returned from evacuating, my Hubby faced the arduous task of tearing down the playhouse - it was a lot more work than I ever dreamed it would be...

...but we were able to salvage a lot of the wood and we have it here at our new place. I plan to make some handpainted signs and other projects for the boutique from the salvaged wood. I'll keep you posted on my progress...  Hopefully it will be more beauty from brokenness...

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One quick note about progress on furnishing and setting up the studio - it is going GREAT but it still has a ways to go before I can share photos. I have spent ALL of my time this past week and today working on it and I'll be at it again all this week I'm sure...but I am loving it! However, since I don't seem to be able to blog and chew gum at the same time, I'm afraid my posting will be sparce again this week...sorry about that. I always miss you guys so much when I'm away from Blogland for any significant length of time. I'll be back just as soon as I can with an update and photos galore, I promise!  Meanwhile, take care and God bless you friends!

From Storage Building to Art Studio

It's FINISHED!!!  I am SO happy to report that the storage-building-to-art-studio transformation project is finally complete! I have to give my sweet Hubby a HUGE round of applause and BIG HUGS for his tireless efforts through the late Spring and all the HOT Summer long to convert our storage building into a fully contained art studio for me. Wow - what a guy!! I LOVE you Baby!!! Thank you!!! (Thanks also to my Dad and a neighbor friend for their occassional assistance too!)

I thought it would be perfect to share this metamorphosis for Metamorphosis Monday over at Susan's place, Between Naps on the Porch...please be sure and check out all the other great transformations - it's always very inspiring!!!

Here's where the project began - a 12' x 24' storage building that we had buiult on our property back in February when we downsized from a 1500 square ft. house with a full garage to a 1000 square ft. mobile home with no garage...

It was a great storage building and held all of the STUFF we previously had in our garage as well as overflow from our previous home...

When it became clear that I would need more space for my art, illustration and crafting pursuits, especially now that I was focusing full time on those efforts, we decided to have an identical 12' x 24' storage building built on our property to continue to provide much needed storage, and then to convert this original building into a studio...so that's how the project began...

I have shared fairly detailed photos of the finish out work over the last few months on the blog, so for this summary post, I will only share a few highlights from previous posts as well as the newest photos of the paint and flooring...

The original building only had one window - Hubby added four more so the studio would have plenty of light...

After adding additional plywood decking to the floor, wiring for electrical and phone/data, and adding an air conditioner, the building was ready for insulation and radiant barrier - a real necessity for our hot Texas summers...

We started getting more excited at this point because the rafters, wall board and ceiling were next, which meant paint and flooring would not be far behind...

Finally, it was time to paint, and it was my turn to do most of the work for a change...and give Hubby a bit of a break...I love how the soft yellow turned out...

At this point, things were progressing really quickly and there was finally light at the end of the tunnel (6 of them to be exact  :o)

Then this past week we were ready for the flooring (easy-peasy laminate "tile"...no floor prep needed)...other than it being painful to his knees (even with knee pads), Hubby said this was one of the easiest of all the tasks and it brought a lot of satisfaction when it was done (about 3 hours for 288 square ft., and that was because of measuring and trimming). This is what we have in our kitchen in the mobile home...it is very comfortable to walk on and extremely durable...and it looks good too...

Once the flooring was down, we were ready for adding the baseboards (which we bought already white) and the corner moulding (also white). After nailing all that up and doing caulking and touch up this past Saturday morning, we were finally done...at least to the point that it is now ready to be moved in to (we still have a bit of trim work and painting to do on the windows, but that won't take long and won't stop us from moving in)...

Now, the REAL fun begins - DECORATING!!! We are going to start moving in boxes and furnitire this week and hopefully get the window coverings up, some pictures hung, and some of the fun accessories put out by this time next week.  Here's a little sneak peek at some of the furniture/accessories I will be using to dress up the studio...

This thrifted ($25) creamy-yellow dresser and mirror will provide a good amount of storage...

Big worktable from my former studio space in our previous home...

Fun yellow lamp and my kitschy 70s embroidery collection....

Hopefully we will be able to make substantial progress this week - if so, I will definitely be back next week to share the photos with all of you at Metamorphosis Monday!!  Thanks Susan for the opportunity to share with all of your readers and fellow participants - you are an awesome hostess!!

If you're still here reading this, you made it through a LOT of photos - thanks so much for your visit!! You are always welcome here at Just Bee 'n Me - I hope to see you again real soon!! God Bless!!