Home decor and renovation craftalong

It looks like a fabulous workspace! Is the furnace room door the entrance to this room?

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Thank you!

The entrance is on the top right between the desk and garbage can. The garbage can is actually curved so it shouldn’t stick out as much as it looks like in the picture (the dimensions in the picture are the max dimensions). The cart that is sitting next to the desk will only be there when I’m using it at the desk and be parked on the other side or by the easels otherwise. My husband is cutting the desk top for me so if needed I can make that a bit shorter to allow a bigger walkway as well.

I think as is in the picture the entrance is just under 2’. I can also move the garbage can to the other side of the room and I have some play with how close the billy bookshelf in the bottom right corner is as well. I figure I’ll firm it all up once we’re to the furniture stage and I can get a better feel for how much space there is.

Edited to add - there is no wall on the right side so the bookshelves are serving as the wall/room divider.

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The lights are all behind you when sitting, will this be an issue?

I’m hoping that it will reflect off the walls and ceiling enough to fill the areas where there aren’t light. But I don’t think I’ll know for sure until I’m actually in the space and can iterate.

The lights look like this so I think the shape and cover will help with diffusing and helping the light not be super directional.

If I can’t figure out the ceiling lights I’ll augment with clamp lamps at the desk and easels.

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My curtain samples finally came and I think I’m going to go with these cool sheer shades for the layer next to the window with curtains outside.

Terrible pics but you can get an idea of what they look like open and closed. Should be good for diffusing light and providing different levels of privacy as needed.

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Another item checked off the list. Both closet doors are done. It was easy to cut through the top louvers and knock out. I did have to chisel out a quarter inch ledge at the bottom of the opening. The first one was easy and I then knocked a big chunk out of the second door. I glued it back in and then tried again. Only knocked out a small piece that time. Easily fixed with wood filler. I then added some quarter round in the new opening, hiding the louver holes and creating a ledge at the inside to staple the caning to. Then a fresh coat of paint in the trim color for the room. The trim hasn’t been painted yet.
Stapling the caning was pretty easy and it dried nice and tight. I did use some clear sealant to secure all the loose ends.

Old door

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I just love that caning!

Yesterday, my neighbor-friend came over to help me sus out a good tool for cutting the extra cable from my railing installation. It’s been holding me up since Sunday. I’d tried some of my tools, some tools borrowed from him, chatted with the manufactures, searched around the interwebs, w/o much result. He came over last night with what I hope is solution. Unfortunately, it may be a job for 3 hands and still not a quick one. But still, it has made the light at the end of the tunnel seem a little brighter!

I’ll have 30 cables to cut for the deck surface and another 20 for the railing. Le sigh.

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Lots of things moving out of the room this week. Junk company came this morning, furniture donation place coming on Wednesday, we’re making a trip to goodwill tomorrow morning, and I will be scheduling a dolly to move the peloton up to the 4th floor. We’ve got the flooring picked out and they should be coming on Monday to get measurements and get a quote to get it installed.

Making progress!

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Ah! So cool, though!!

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@Abbeeroad Thanks! We’re glad about our choice!

@photojenn WOW! From the outside it looks like quick progress!

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It feels like it’s been taking forever to me :joy:. My husband hasn’t been able to lift anything over 20lbs for almost 6 weeks then we both got colds a couple weeks ago so I’ve just been sitting on the plans for weeks. So now that everyone is feeling better and my husband should be cleared to lift heavy things on Wednesday, we can start actually making progress! I’m hoping to have everything done by Thanksgiving :crossed_fingers:

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@photojenn I totally understand how time works differently from inside the project! Sometimes quicker, sometimes slower. Thanksgiving sounds like a totally realistic goal even with unforeseen hiccups and snafus.

Y’all! The cutting of the cables with the borrowed angle grinder was like cutting through buttah! Well, cold buttah, but still. Less than a minute each.

In fact, putting the caps on the ends was harder and took longer. Tightening was fiddly and a little knuckle-scrapy against the rough cedar siding on the house, but neither difficult nor especially time-consuming. WOO!

The yellow is duct tape over cardboard to protect the finish on the posts from the angle grinder. The numbers are the order for tightening the cables. I’ll use it for all of the sections - 2 more (much longer ones) on the deck and 2 for the stair rails.

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Looking good! I still can’t believe you built it all yourself!

Here’s hoping! Home Depot had the mobile workbench/tool chest I wanted back in stock so I snagged it. It should be here end of oct/early nov and we don’t have a great place to store it so even more reason to get things moving. I’m way more excited than I should be about it but it’s going to hold so many art supplies! When ordering I realized it weighs closer to 300 lbs, not 200 lbs so getting the wheels on it and into the room should be an adventure :slight_smile:

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Thanks! And WOW 300 pounds for just the chest. You’re going to have some very sturdily protected supplies in there! NOICE!

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Oh yeah, it’s total overkill for the supplies but everything about the size, height, drawers, top, and wheels is perfect. The drawers open up all the way, can handle 100 lbs each, and have liners and soft close so things don’t slide everywhere. I’m going to use it next to my easel to have my brushes and palette on top so the height and size are going to be so nice. It also has integrated power which I’m not sure if I’ll use but could also end up being useful. It’s the one piece of furniture in the room I’m most excited about.

Maybe I need to start painting with bricks or something to justify having something so heavy duty :joy:

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I am 100% in support of storage that can handle anything. If we ever remodel the kitchen I want all the drawers to be able to handle being filled with cast iron, even though only a couple ever would be. That cabinet will never get rickety!

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Room emptying progress. We moved this old Kallax shelf into place and the coffee table on the right to get a sense for the space. The dark kallax 4x4 shelf will be replaced with a white 3x4 kallax (standing 4 tall). The coffee table is roughly the size of the desk top and the space feels plenty of open to walk into the room. The rolling cart will be on the wall where the peloton is now. The size of the space feels really good and I think I should have plenty of room to not feel cramped. Everything that is currently in the room will be removed in a few days. The only thing that is staying is the garbage can lol.

I’m waffling back and forth about putting sliding curtain panels on the ceiling to create a “wall” behind the kallax. The front door is on the left and I’d like to at least nicely back the kallax with something if I don’t have curtain panels behind it. Thoughts?

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I like the idea of a curtain, it would really seperate the room into two seperate spaces, entry hall and art room.

Is this the door you guys use every day or is it more like the formal front door that’s used for delivery drivers and visitors?

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I like the idea of sliding panels! They could give a sense of privacy either while you’re working (at times, if you want) or so you can feel comfortable walking away from your art without feeling like you have to tidy up if you’re expecting visitors.

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Maybe sliding Shoji screens or something similar?

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