Office to Art Studio Day 1
Okay, so today I am trying something different with my posts. Usually I work on a project, making sure to document and when the project is all done, I show a reveal and a little how to. Today I wanted to change it up. This project is something I am just beginning. Today was day one. Instead of showing you the finished product, I am journaling each day. The reason I am doing this has many reasons. Some of the main ones are: I want you to journey with me on this project. I also would love to hear your input as the project is progressing, because at this point, there are still a few unknowns!
I will start by explaining what I am working on. I have a pretty decent sized office on my main floor. It is connected to the kitchen and to the entry. It is pretty central to my home. For years, this room has been a toy room/office/library/art room/ I wish I had solid doors so when I close them I don’t have to see inside.
About 7 years ago, my husband and I built some built-in bookshelves. They were one of our first DIY projects. Another thing that we have in this room is a connecting door to a room under our stairs. We have used this as our toy room for many years. This is where we installed our pallet wall.
But, really, we had to face reality. I had the best of intentions. I envisioned my children all sitting in here, working on homework. I thought it would be a great space for them to be. But this is not the case. My kids do their homework at the island in our kitchen, where I can help while I am making dinner.  only thing they do in the office is make a mess and I would rather they do that in their room. My under the stairs room has failed me too. It has become a storage of crap. It is full of unwanted toys, dirty socks, stuffed animals, and yesterday I found a dried out slice of bread. Gross, gross, gross. It was time for a change. I gathered my kids and we made some plans.  My boys mainly play with their Legos these days, so we gathered each and ever Lego we could find and we found a place to store them all in my oldest boys room. I have decided that instead of having a toy room/crap room, each kid can store and use their most favorite toys in their rooms. I currently have about 5 boxes of really nice toys that will be headed to the thrift store! We also have about the same amount of broken toys headed to the dump. It was a great experience for my kids to choose what was the most important and what they were okay with donating.
So, there is a reason why I am doing this. For years, I have been wanting to incorporate a dedicated art studio, and during the time my kids were really young, I did not see it as a realistic option. We actually have plans to build a separate building in our backyard that will be my art studio/workshop/just my space. But, that takes a little capital. The capital that somehow got spent on a tree house last year, even though my building was up higher in the list. Ah, what you do for your kids. Now that my children are getting older, they spend a little more time in their own rooms and like creating in their own space. Cant say that I blame them!
Do you see where I am going with this? I a turning this office into my art studio!! Now, It will still have some office capabilities, but it will be off limits to the kids, except to come grab a book of the shelves.
One key element that I was concerned about was having carpet in a room where I will be using paint. Not the best idea. Secondly, the carpet in this room probably gets the most traffic. I has seen better days. My solution? I decided to tear out the carpet and paint a design on the cement and then seal it! Not only is it super functional, but it is right up my alley when it comes to design. At least for now.
I was a little nervous that this might be an undertaking to large for just me. You see, my hubby is not always on board with my ideas. Nevertheless, he is supportive. He just thinks carpet is just fine in a studio. What does he know! 🙂
So today I began moving all the furniture and other odds and ends out of the room. I sat and stared at the carpet for a minute, knowing there was no turning back once I started. I grabbed the corner and started to pull. Hey, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be! The real struggle was rolling the carpet up and dragging it out to the garage. That would have been hilarious to see. Just me, and my giant puppy following me in a panic, nervous about what I was doing.
Next came the carpet pad. Done and done. The tack strips were the most time consuming part of the day today. I had to pop up each nail that had been nailed into the concrete.
Once that was done I had to do cleanup. There are a few things I need to address tomorrow. after I pulled up the carpet pad, memories came flooding back of the time we spent building this home, and building that room. So many hope and dreams of building our first home, together. I could see splatters of paint from the first color that I painted in that room. There was even still drywall compound on the concrete. I had no idea that was still there. I even had one scary moment when I was pulling up the carpet and I found a spot with some mold!!! Mold I tell you! We quickly found the source and fixed it! No more mold! I keep telling my hubby, he should be so very grateful that I did this, otherwise we would never have known!
So this is where I ended for tonight. I have scrubbed the floor and plan on buffing it in the morning. My plan for the concrete floor is to create a large pattern and stencil it on the raw concrete. Once that is done I will seal the whole thing. The pattern will be painted in white, of course. Here is one of my inspirational pics for the floor.
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So what do you think? I am so excited to create this pattern on my floor. I am excited for so many things that this room will be used for. I cannot wait to get started! I have BIG plans do you know!
I would love to hear what you think so far! Any helpful hints would be great!!
I am off to bed. My arms are sore and my back is a little stiff, but man am I thrilled that I was able to do it all by myself! It is so empowering to do something that most think you cant! Yes, I am talking about a woman dragging carpet through her house. Its what I do.
Have a great day!
If you’d like to see more posts on this projects check these out:
https://www.twelveonmain.com/office-to-art-studio-day-2/
https://www.twelveonmain.com/office-to-art-studio-day-3/
https://www.twelveonmain.com/make-a-quick-and-easy-craft-paper-holder/
