Tuesday, June 18, 2013

A room of one's own...

     I had craft and art supplies scattered in various places, and since moving into this house I haven't had a decent place to work on projects where they wouldn't take over the kitchen counter or the bed in our guestroom. So when we remodeled our basement I lobbied for a dedicated workroom. It could be converted to another bedroom if needed, but for now...it would be all mine!
     I was determined to just repurpose furnishings that I already had, no need to buy much that was new. But I did want this space to look cohesive and colorful, so I fully expected to do some repainting. (yay!!) 
    Here's a picture of the room with all my furnishings waiting to be transformed.


Painting opportunities - a work in progress!



 My dresser from childhood (which has lived through flower power decals, black lacquer, and terra cotta finishes) got a wakeup call with apple green high gloss paint and gray ceramic knobs scored at a huge discount from my favorite bargain haunt, Ross. Now it houses art supplies, stencils, craft paint, etc.





                                               



I repainted two of my alley-find chairs white and scooted one under the table that I revamped from a $15 CL purchase from several years ago (from my old breakfast nook). This time I repurposed it as a sewing table painted traffic cone orange.
Above the table I covered a foamcore board with old maps and hung clipboards I painted with magnetic paint. The boxes below are also covered with maps (empty copy paper boxes where I now store fabric scraps).
The other chair went under my repainted garage sale file cabinets topped with a piece of a cast off door from someone else's remodeling project.
The shelves above it are inexpensive IKEA shelves (one of my few new purchases in this room).



An old gateleg table that was my mom's (now painted the same traffic cone orange) functions as my main worktable in the center of the room.


 Rounding out the furniture is the armoire that was one of my very first CL purchases. Check out my post A bedroom with no closet to see its first incarnation. Now I'm using it as a wrapping paper/spray paint supply closet.


What I learned from this project:

1. IKEA has some great fabric by the yard at bargain prices - I made the curtains for this room and the fabric was only $7.99 yd.
2. The large grommet kits for the curtains (purchased at Michaels) were super easy to use.
3. Primer is your friend. Use it.
4. 1 qt. apple green paint + 1 qt. orange paint = a roomful of happy