Saturday, January 15, 2011

It's NOT EASY to be BEAUTIFUL!!!

But I am really gonna give it a try!
Not me personally but my studio!
That's right I am finally going to get my studio decorated. It is the only room in the house that has never been decorated, heck, it doesn't even have curtains! The main reason I never did anything in here was because I didn't know what I wanted to do. I really wanted a "pretty" room but I also needed a functional room. And I really needed a place to work, so I just put everything in there and just waited. It has almost been 4 years since we moved in and I am done waiting!
So this is what my studio has looked liked. Pretty plain - all white furniture, beige walls and LOTS of plastic storage containers! (The chandelier is new - Gary got it for me for Christmas since I now know what I want to do in here)

So this is my take on "pretty". Lots of glass jars, beautiful black & white metal baskets, a black & crystal chandelier. And NO visible plastic storage!
Christmas night I started on my room - well on the storage containers at least. I have had about 20 of these metal baskets in my garage for 2 years. I got them REALLY cheap - under $1 each! But they were covered with ugly paper and the white part was a cream color. So I started painting Christmas night and made them all black & white. I even added rhinestones around the tops of the small ones. The day after Christmas I went shopping for glass jars and white china dishes - I got a ton of them! Then it took me two days to get them all filled and labeled and the old storage out of here.
The next step is to paint the walls. I just have to get rid of the beige! So this Monday Gary is going to paint for me. This meant getting EVERYTHING out of my room today!!! I packed up 2 boxes last night and thought I could finish everything else in the morning, it shouldn't take me too long - right? Well, it took me almost 10 hours!!!! But look at it now! It is so hollow in here - each click on my keyboard is echoing in here!
Once I emptied it all out I went ahead and scrubbed down all of the furniture, tightened the bolts on my chairs, clean the walls and doors and swept up the floor. It just looks so BRIGHT in here now!

As clean and bright as my studio looks, my dinning room is the complete opposite! It is FULL of all of my stuff! Well, everything that was "out" in my studio. All of the cabinets in my studio are still full - Gary says we can move them full for painting. I sure hope he's right!

So now you've seen my studio as it was, and you've seen my new containers, and you know I'm painting. Do you want to know what else I'm doing in here???

I am going EXTREAM in here - ALL BLACK & WHITE!!!! That's right, no color at all! I (okay, Gary) am painting 3 of my walls black and one of them white. I can't wait!!!! I am making my window treatments and my chair cushions myself using a black & white damask. My friend Judie's husband is building me a built in counter with custom sized cubbies in it for all of my storage needs. In fact I am meeting him at Home Depot tomorrow to pick out the final items for the built in (it will be going wall to wall under the window and I will be getting rid of the bookcase). I am adding some beadboard to the backs of my hutches, pretty trims and details around the room but keeping everything either black or white. I typically would not be this brave all on my own but about 10 months ago I found this gal's room and fell in love!!!! As I looked at her space I kept thinking "how can I do this in my space"? I certainly cannot have the square footage she has or the furniture, but I can adopt her color scheme and the over all feel of the room. Right???

Well, wish me luck and I will be back soon with some after pictures. But I will be away for a couple of days, I will have to tear down my computer tomorrow night so we can start 1st thing in the morning Monday.

Enjoy your what's left of your weekend!

Toodles

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