with work and with this:

it's going to be a very busy week - i will have to catch up with all of you next week.

but i will leave you with some images from our productive weekend...






*all pictures taken at night*

paint samples are on the wall...



top left: valspar - wet pavement
top right: restoration hardware - slate
bottom left: lowes color matched to benjamin moore - coventry gray
bottom right: lowes color matched to benjamin moore - ozark shadows

also know as: the post full of random things i like.

have you all seen the movie 500 days of summer? after seeing the chalkboard wall in that movie, i went back to wanting a chalkboard something in my house. i know that it seems to be kind of trendy or whatever, and i'm not normally one to follow trends. but for a studio space i think it would be great to have a large area to draw and sketch and a place that i can use for inspiration and ideas.by the way, how fun was the headboard that was just drawn on the chalkboard? cheapest headboard ever!

moving on - here is a sketch of the floorplan that i'm working with. as you can see, the large window faces the south so we get a lot of natural light in this room. good for working, not for watching tv or sitting by the window (it gets really hot in the summer). we're hoping to get blinds to help with that problem though. the wall with the big window is also the exposed brick wall.
i've been trying to sketch possible furniture layouts (see part 1) using the chair/ottoman, desk, table, and tv stand. i'm not coming up with much. i might just need to start moving the furniture around in the room once we are done painting to see what feels best.i'm really leaning towards painting the desk if i end up using it in this room, the yellow pine just doesn't go with anything else. i could re-stain it, but that seems like a lot more work. if i painted it, i'm thinking maybe a glossy gray that is lighter than the wall color? i'm not a huge fan of painted white furniture normally, i'm not into that whole "shabby chic" look. but would gray (or some other color) help it look more modern and less shabby chic? i know i really need a better picture of the desk, i am sorry about that.

and back to the chalkboard idea - i'm not sure that i'd want to do a whole wall.... both for cost reasons and just the fact that i don't see myself using the whole wall. what do you all think of just doing a wide stripe of chalkboard paint on one wall? possibly the wall across from the brick wall (the one that the closet is on). i think i'll have to decide furniture layout first, and then pick the chalkboard wall. i was thinking maybe a 3' or 4' stripe of chalkboard paint, with possibly some kind of corkboard stripe across the top and/or bottom so that i can also pin up photos, plans, etc... see my horrible photocopy sketch below.
or maybe not? i keep going back and forth on the chalkboard, i think that my biggest reason why not is just because i keep seeing it everywhere... but that seems like a strange reason not to do something. i really do like the idea of some kind of corkboard though.

while i'm on the random path, i've also thought about attempting to make my own version of this fabulous shelving wall unit by the brick house (if you don't read this blog, you should, she has a great house and i'm jealous of almost all of her furniture and light fixtures)

it's made of plumbing parts and a couple of pieces of wood. it's not attached to the floor so we wouldn't have to worry about damaging the wood floors. something like this could be customized to help with some of the storage that i need, and possibly even hold some of my books, maybe a new flat tv (dreaming), architectural models and studio supplies... i probably wouldn't be able to make this now, but maybe in a few months? what do you think, should i work it into the plan? it would help me eliminate the need for a lot of the other random furniture i'm considering. thanks morgan for letting me share your shelving unit... and possibly copying your idea... :-)

so there you have it. and you can see why i need help. i'll leave you with one last image of some of the materials i'm considering:

i am stuck with what to put in this room. as i've mentioned before, the end goal of this room will be some kind of den/studio space - i would like to be able to sit and read and/or watch tv, i need storage space (badly!) and i would like some large surface area that i can do work on. i tend to do a lot of art and some sewing projects that take up a lot of space. i normally use the dining table but it would be nice to have an area where i can leave stuff out if i want. i also have a drafting board that i'd like to be able to set up if i wanted to do some hand drafting (yes, i'm a huge dork and i enjoy hand drafting).

to make it even more complicated, i don't really want to have to buy new furniture for this room. at least not at this point. we have a random assortment of furniture that we're not using right now so i'm hoping that i can use some of it to make a functioning (but still pretty!) space.

here is the furniture we have to work with (sorry for the old apartment photos, but that's when we used this furniture)... and wow our design style has changed since we lived in that apartment - i think i was going through a blah brown phase.
big green chair and ottoman (this was mike's furniture which is why it is big and green, not my style but super comfy)
bad picture, but the pine desk and/or desk chair to the left of the fireplace. i'm also open to painting this desk, it's from my bedroom when i was a kid so i've just been moving it around with me even though it doesn't really work for a computer... oh, and reese and eze. they will probably hang out in this room too :-)
this table. it's extends to be about twice as long. i don't think i can paint it because of how it extends. but it would be a good large(ish) work surface. i also have those black chairs still and could use one of them for a desk chair or at this table. i'd prefer not to paint the black chairs though because we use them in our dining room when we have more than 6 over for dinner.
this small tv stand and tv. it's an ikea/target stand so not all that great but i'm willing to paint it too. i don't really have anything else that the tv can sit on.

what do you think? even worth trying to make work? do i need both a desk and that table? the desk does have storage (it also has a shelf under it). this room has a big closet that i'm planning on putting some wire shelves in for additional storage. i know that i could probably find some different furniture on craigslist for not very much (you know how i love craigslist!) but i promised the husband that i'd stop buying craigslist furniture for a little while. plus we don't have a very big budget for this room.

stay tuned for part 2, i didn't want to make this post too long.

over the weekend we removed the wallpaper in the den/studio/yet to be named room and started patching the walls.


(the chair is hiding under that blue blanket to protect it from drywall dust)

for the most part, the wallpaper came off easily. it must have been expensive wallpaper - it was very heavy. now we only have one last little area of wallpaper above the stairs. someday we'll be wallpaper free...

and yeah... there was some mold under the wallpaper on one wall. super gross. i decided not to post that picture! we found something similar in our bedroom and were able to kill it with some high strength mold remover stuff. we're hoping that the same thing works in this room. it appears to be just on the surface, the first pass with the mold remover seemed to get most of it. but still, super gross.

now we just need to finish up patching the walls, sand, and prime! then the fun stuff starts, like picking a paint color. i still like the color that i posted about here, but i also want to try a couple of samples of a cooler gray tone. we're hoping to paint this weekend. i also am having a hard time with the furniture layout in this room, look for a post about that later in the week, i need help!