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Basement Studio Progress

I’ve made more progress on the basement studio!

I picked up another Expedit (I call them my “cubes”), and a couple of freestanding kitchen counters from IKEA’s Värde line. I’ve always wanted the one with all of the drawers, so I’m glad that I finally have space for it. All of my supplies will go in the drawers, and my products will be lined up on the shelving.

I like to designate a separate center for shipping. Here’s what it looked like in the previous studio space:

I see those pictures and I think “ugh, that looks so messy and disorganized!” But, um, here’s what the new shipping center looks like right now:

Yeah, I have just a wee bit of work to do there. I’m glad to have closed storage now though — that will go a long way in making it look more neat.

The main layout is setup and the big furniture pieces are in place, so I’m going to have to get down there and start organizing. I’m wondering about the windows now. I love playing with color and pattern in window curtains, but the basement windows don’t really call for window treatments. There is a surprising amount of natural light in the basement, and I want to preserve as much of that light as possible. So no curtains? Or yes, but with them mounted extra wide and open all the way? The windows are high and short too, so that may be another reason to eschew treatments.

Basement, Studio • 32 Comments • July 28, 2011

Starting on the Basement Studio (Finally!)

July
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I used to have a great little studio. Remember?

Oh, former studio! You were so good to me and my shop. Then I had a baby. And then another one. And I needed that upstairs bedroom back. So we remodeled and finished the basement to make room, and now (finally!) it’s time to get the new studio up and running. I last showed you the space when it was newly finished and looking rather empty.

Here’s what it looks like these days, with the furniture moved in.

I’m excited to be working with IKEA for this stage of the basement remodel. I already had one of their butcher-block kitchen islands and I’m adding a few more pieces from their Värde line because they work perfectly in craft rooms. And yay, I finally have a space to bring back the striped Stockholm Rand rug! I tried it a couple of years ago in the dining room, but it just wasn’t right for that space.

It’s going to look much better in the studio. I’m bringing another over to the playroom side too for continuity.

I have a lot of organizing and decorating to do. The play room can wait a little, but I’m eager to open Pink Loves Brown up again, and obviously I need everything in place before that can happen.

Basement, Studio • 41 Comments • July 12, 2011

The (Mostly) Finished Basement

March
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Ta da! Does it suddenly feel like December again? Because that’s when all of this was supposed to be finished. Here’s the floor plan:

Let’s head down the stairs to take a look around.

And now a before:

And after:

Before:

After:

That’s as good as it gets for empty basement ‘before and after’ photos, because once we reached this stage we started moving in all of our stuff. Witness, we couldn’t even wait at this point to start filling up the storage area.

The play space used to look like this:

Now it’s a play room, and it looks like this:

And of course, we have the bathroom and laundry room sneak peeks you’ve already seen:

Our house feels so much bigger now. I think we added about 600 sq. ft. of living space to our existing 1400. Now it’s on to the fun part: decorating it!

Basement, Bathrooms, Laundry Room, Play Room, Studio • 133 Comments • March 15, 2011

Basement Paint Colors

January
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We’re tiling the half-bathroom and laundry room in white Octagon & Dot with charcoal gray grout, and we’re going to paint the rest of the basement floor. Since it’s just paint, I figured I’d pick a fun color (as opposed to tan/brown/gray), so I’m going with “olive tree” by Benjamin Moore. The studio is getting my favorite shade of pink (“wild aster”), and I think the play space will get “sweet pear,” a lighter version of the floor color.

I still need to choose colors for the laundry room (something that will work with our red washer and dryer, which you can kind of see in this lovely picture), and the half-bath (with its very short ceiling and lack of windows). I had a dream that I painted the bathroom orchid, like the Crayola crayon color, but I don’t know if that’s the way to go in reality. And maybe a creamy white for the laundry room? I think a robin’s egg blue would look nice too, but I’m not normally a big fan of blue.

Any suggestions?

Basement, Bathrooms, Laundry Room, Painting, Studio • 56 Comments • January 19, 2011

Making Room for Baby

August
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Among all of the congratulations (thank you!), one question is popping up repeatedly. How are we going to make room for another baby? After all, our hundred-year-old bungalow is just 1400 square feet, and I run my stationery business out of it.

My sweet, colorful, lovely little studio is going to move into the scary basement. I’ll miss you, studio!

I’ll be honest. I’m pretty sensitive to my surroundings, so working in our unfinished basement is going to be a bit depressing. Plus I scare easily and I think my assistant Erika might too, and I can see us both being weirded out by spending time down there. It IS a little spooky, but we don’t have any other options.

Eventually Brandon and I would like to put up drywall and make the lower level feel like the rest of our home, but we don’t have the budget right now. We’ll clean it up and arrange things as best we can, but I fear it will still be icky.

*Update*
I mentioned the basement walls in a couple of the comments below, but here is a photo. Unpaintable, bizarre crackled tiles. No ceiling either, and wires everywhere. Here’s a link to view the photo in a larger size.

My studio will become Eleanor’s new room though, and that will make me happy. It’s going to be adorable! And the room (12×12) feels so much bigger than her current space (7×14 with sloped ceilings), so that will be nice for her. The nursery will stay a nursery since it works really well as such. I do plan to make at least a few changes though, regardless of gender. I want the new baby to have a look of his/her own.

Now all of this puts greater urgency on #9 of my 30 Before Thirty list: Clean out the basement. All of this shuffling of space hinges on getting it ready, and I am SO not looking forward to that task.

Basement, Eleanor's Room, Parenting, Pregnancy, Studio • 127 Comments • August 19, 2010