In recent years the desire to have a dedicated “art” area has been intensifying.

It started with the notion of buying a large storage shed and plopping it on our parcel – only to find out it would not fit within the mandatory setbacks.

Next was a consultation with a contractor to have a little room built off the laundry room. “This roof line doesn’t meet that – the floor elevation doesn’t meet this.  We have to change the roofline, dig out a new subfloor”.  Dollars were mounting. The heck with that.

Penny pincher Paige gave up on the whole thing.

Last month we decided the clean out the garage – the walls seemed to be closing in.  It was time to give the kids all the childhood clutter we’ve been storing for years (why make them wait until we kick the bucket). We sorted through all the novelties we haven’t looked at in 10 years. Give away this, throw out that, save enough for the kids to reminisce about later on. Divide and conquer.

And then the lightbulb went off.

My new art room.

*click on photos to enlarge

* Our handy dandy handyman took down one of our shelves in a creative way – lowering the middle shelf to create a tabletop and then cutting off the remaining top selves.  He installed particle board over the tabletop to allow room for a cantilevered sitting area while notching out  room for my legs on the shelf below.  Pegboard now hides the torn sheetrock.

New paint gave the table and adjoining shelves a crisp clean look – Minwax Polycrylic Gloss  protects the work surfaces from chipping and scratching.  Walmart curtains hide the storage shelves and create a more finished effect. I painted the floor a checkerboard pattern to pull all the colors in and chose teal green to paint an old barstool and storage boxes to add a little pop.

Violà – or Walah for us Americans…..