Extreme Crafting requires an Extreme Studio...Here's to the remodel!

So in my pursuit to get things done and to be creative, efficient, and successful, it was absolutely necessary to change up my work space.  


For those of you who have been to the house you will know that my studio was formerly in the basement.  Now this wasn't quite the awful situation that it sounds like.  There were real windows, plus a good amount of space and storage.  I know you're thinking to yourself, "Those are all good things, this girl is complaining about that? Boo Hoo." But the problem with the space is that it was also home to the dog door to our back yard.  


When wer are at work all day our puppies (all four of them) are loose in the basement.  Naturally surrounded by so much temptation i.e. crafting supplies, they could not resist.  So I would frequently come home to destruction.  ***Side note: I am in no way a naturally tidy person especially in my studio, so despite my best efforts there was always something to destroy or ravage.***


The other problem was the dust and dirt.  With puppies in and out all day the tracked in a lot if dirt with them.  My space and my projects would be covered in a fine blanket of dust with out a significant amount of effort by myself and my lady love.  Thus I began to look for solutions to my problem where we could all win, woman and beast alike.


The first attempted solution was to put up a gate, a tall one.  This solved some of the destruction issues however there were a few downfalls.  
1) The gate did not solve the dust and dirt issue.
2) The puppies did not have nearly enough space indoors, it made them agitated. 
3) Then on top of everything else one or all of them would frequently get through the gate! DAMMIT!


Our next move was to make and mount up a curtain.  Now when I say we, that translates to me.  I made a curtain.  One night my lovely wife Deb, our friend Jen (www.diynamicduo.com), and I went to have Mexican food at Guadalara in Charlottesville, before I was to make the curtain. ***Side note: making curtains BLOWS, as a seamstress at an interior design firm, I dread getting a curtain order***.  To numb the pain from having to make a curtain Jen and I needed to partake in a jumbo (pronounced Yum-Bo) margarita.  Jen was not involved in the curtain making, but she was willing to lend her support through margarita consumption.  


I made the curtain and the next day Deb and I hung it in the studio.  I must admit I was skeptical.  I did not think it would work but Deb was confident.  She may have been trying to make me feel better about having to make a curtain that was a real pain in the but, but that is what a good wife does.  Well, it didn't work, our cocker spaniel Hobbes kept getting through, until finally our great dane Orson tore the curtain down and started on a path of destruction.  When I walk in and see the studio in a state of chaos, I just couldn't handle it, I had to leave or lose my temper.  The choice was made the studio had to move.


Now this was not going to be a small task.  It meant moving a whole bunch of bracketed wall mounted shelving, a large cutting table, a desk, two chairs, a day bed, books, and not to mention a mountain of fabric.  It had too be done, this had gone too far.  


We moved the guest bed into our smallest bedroom/office/junk room, and the studio took over what used to be the guest room.  It took deb and I about 8 hours just to move everything and then it took me another 12 hours to actually organize it and make it workable.  


It was a long, long, road, but at the end the result was beyond my wildest dreams.  I can really work in my space, and while it is not a puppy free zone, it is certainly invitation only.

The view as you enter the den of creativity.

This is Deb's space, a daybed for her to relax on whilst I toil.

I can't believe that my entire fabric hoard fit on those shelves.  That is incredible to me.

My beautiful cutting table, I have so much space to work!

The entertainment set up and my dress form, newly padded down I might add!

I just made these pockets for the wall with my favorite fabric from Ikea and some grommets. My pattern pieces that I made are always all over the place, so it's great to have a place for them that is functional and good looking.

I am SO thrilled with my new space and I have my sweet wife deb to thank for all of her back breaking work to help me move all of that furniture.  Love you and the muscles that you put behind makin' dreams a reality.