The Year of Remodeling/Renovating

Our home was built in the middle 80s when popcorn ceilings were in every single house. For the last 15 years, I've hated those ceilings and have removed them in some of our smaller rooms. The den is very big and has vaulted ceilings. For years we couldn't come up with a good way to take care of it that didn't cost a fortune, take a long time or make a huge mess. We finally found a DIY solution - old recycled barn tin!

Recycled Barn Tin

 The recycled tin has such a great rust patina on it. My husband got permission to remove the tin from an old barn that is being torn down. He used a power washer to clean the tin. I gave it a final wipe down before applying 3 coats of polyurethane to stop the rusting process.
We stood on scaffolding to hold the first piece up so my husband could drill and screw it into the wood rafters. Since it was just the two of us, that really didn't work. We quickly saw that we would not be able to hold it, so he devised a tool to use to hold the tin up while he attached it to the ceiling.

Ceiling in progress - notice that ugly popcorn?

Ben attaching the tin to the ceiling

Area between paneling and ceiling is painted with Ralph Lauren Metallic Paint

View of other side of the den

Fireplace (which we no longer use) and mantel

 Finished ceiling looks so much better and the nice thing was we were able to put it up right over the existing and didn't have to deal with the mess of scraping. Since there are no windows in the room, the lighting for photography isn't the best.

Floor primed

I've been wanting to get rid of the carpet in my studio for ages. I finally took the time off, ripped out the carpet and did a total redo of my studio space. We've been in our house almost 27 years and it was the original carpet and boring off-white wall color. My original plan was to decoupage book pages for the floor (similar to the paper bag floor I did in the hall bath a few years ago), but the floor was way too big and would have taken forever to do.
I thought I would just paint the concrete, but after doing online research, decided that probably wasn't a good option either, given the amount of time I had, tools and experience level. I went to Lowe's and found the answer. 18 x 18 peel & stick linoleum tiles with grout. Who knew you could grout linoleum? It was fairly easy, looks like real ceramic tile for a fraction of the time and cost. A perfect solution.

Starting to add grout

Walls painted

I first painted the walls with Glidden Soothing Green Tea paint. I love this color!

I had Bennie build me another shelf and moved two existing shelves to make room for it. I've taken supplies out of boxes and put them into glass jars where I can easily see what I have. I love my new creative space.

Stereo & Storage

Bead storage on double doors. These hold my semi-precious beads

Found this marvelous twisted branch in OK

New shelves w/glass jars

Making use of space behind door for paints & stamps

Large storage - surplus from manufacturing shop

Boxes on left are glass beads

Pages friends made for me, decoupages on the side of the big unit

I zentangled my ceiling fan blades

New ceiling fan for studio.

In The Studio

What a mess - works in progress

Heads on sticks - some are now witches

I've got a really great studio space. It was supposed to be the formal dining room, but we aren't formal dining room type people. I love that it has a big window the looks out onto my front yard and up the road. Lots of the pieces of storage in my studio are recycled and they work great for their new purpose. I also usually have lots of "heads on sticks", heads that I've sculpted waiting on bodies and to be incorported into the latest art doll. I like sculpting the heads best, so there are usually several pots filled with them. The first part of next year I plan on taking out the carpet in the room and covering the floor of my studio by decoupaging book pages on to it. While I have all the furniture out, I'll probably paint the walls. I'm thinking about corking one so it will be a permanent bulletin board and I think I'll cover one section with chicken wire so I'll have a place to hang things without sticking pins or nails into the wall.


Display of finished dolls

More heads on sticks

Supply storage

Wall unit from surplus - bead storage