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!!