While my studio renovation happened in a relatively short 45 days, our bedroom makeover was more on the order of months. But that is ok, as I was taking my time developing my ideas of how I wanted the space to look.

For almost 2 years, this is what our bedroom looked like.

Blah. Boring. Plain.

I suppose it was good for putting us to sleep. Snore.

So, how to fix that?

Benjamin Moore ‘Caliente’, one of my favourite BM colours. It’s not what you think though – it did not go on all 4 walls.

As always, you can click for a larger photo. I am calling this room “masculine vintage”. I wanted something that looked cottage-y, but not country. Hopefully I pulled it off.

I thought I would show you some of the smaller details:

Over the bed are three oars that I got when a local historic hotel was emptied out (The Patrick Henry for anyone loca). This is my side of the bed, so I thought I would do a couple of pretty things over here. Flowers, a jadite bowl, and milk glass. All of which is sitting on one of the two unbelievable bedside tables that TJ built.

Aren’t these amazing? Solid cherry, built to match our Tom Seely dresser, finishing with oh so many layers of stain and shellack and many other things. The finishing took longer than the building did. Apparently it will continue to get richer and darker over the years. They have already darkened quite a bit in a few months.

On the other side of the room, I wanted to do some family photos, which is something I do not have anywhere else in the house.

Throughout the room I used some vintage games as accents.

Bingo, dominos, checkers and backgammon. I also made a pin board covered in fabric to display some of my antique skeleton keys (yeah estate sales!)

TJ and I made a ladder to hold some special quilts and blankets. We used some old railing spindles as the rungs and barn board pieces for the rails.

For the other corner, I found some amazing old reclaimed beams on craigslist. After a drive up to Covington and a quick run through the mitre saw, we have some aged beauty.

I took a cheap pine trunk that I had in university, painted it with some leftover wall paint, and then sanded it down to age it a bit.

I also found a really, um, unique chair on craigslist. I thought I had a picture of the before of that one, but I don’t. It was royal blue, really dirty, and dated. Now though, I think it suits the corner.

I recovered it in some mattress ticking to match the duvet cover. (Speaking of the bedding – I am going to do another post about the quilt that I made, along with the bedding accessories.) I would like to make or buy a vintage crokinole board to hang on the wall over the chair. I used to play crokinole when I would visit my aunt and uncle – it’s a great game and the boards are gorgeous.

So what do you think? Did I achieve masculine vintage cottage?

After exactly 45 days, my studio renovation is complete. I hope you are ready for a monster post!

An incredible amount of work went into this room, from a whole whack of different people (but mostly my wonderful hubby). But before I reveal the results that I am oh so proud of and happy with, here is a reminder of what it looked like before. (as always, click on the pictures to see a larger version)

An unfinished typical basement. Now don’t get me wrong, we had managed to get it quite functional down there,

but it wasn’t what you would call pretty.

The main problem with the studio before though was the temperature. It was uninsulated on most of the walls, so it was like being outside in the winter. You can see the exposed concrete walls of the foundation here:

It wasn’t too bad down there the first winter we lived in the house, but it wasn’t a particularly cold year. This past year however, with record snowfalls and a couple of very cold weeks, it went down to unworkable temperatures. I tried using a space heater, but I only had one outlet. If I ran the space heater I couldn’t run the sewing machine or the iron, it would flip the breaker. Not to mention that I had a rather elaborate system of extension cords powering everything (definitely a fire hazard).

So TJ convinced his dad to come down for a couple of days and give him a hand getting started. This is what T’s dad does day in and day out, so his experience was very valuable. In 4 days the basement went from bare walls to having an insulated floor, subfloor, studs, electrical, bulkheads, walls and a ceiling. It was incredible the amount that got finished in such a short time. A huge thank you to T’s dad (and Ellen and Mom) for all the help over that weekend. We could no have done it without you!

Once the family had sadly packed up and headed home, T and I began the process of all of the finishing work. I won’t bore you with the details, but I did create an album with all kinds of in process shots here. Needless to say, it has taken us 6 weeks to get the remainder of the room finished. There is an incredible amount of work involved, especially when you are taking the time to make it perfect. And perfect is what we have now.

It makes me giddy to look at those before and after shots beside each other!

Such an amazing sense of accomplishment. From the cork flooring that we installed, to the crown moulding around the top of the room, it is exactly how I imagined it and more.

My island with 12 drawers, all labeled with their contents.

The other side of the island which has two stainless steel shelves for all of my mason jars full of bits and bobs on top, and all of my small rubbermaids full of stuff down below.

The unbelievably gorgeous built in cabinet that TJ created in the nook that is created by the fireplace upstairs. All the bins are stored so nicely away from all the dust, and are easily pulled in and out.

The bottom of the cabinet has more bins and my stereo. The genius that my husband is even put two speakers in the ceiling, which are wired into this cabinet. That way I don’t have two big speakers to store on the shelves! Plus if we were ever going to sell the house, this could be used for an entertainment system. The doors on this cabinet are even the soft close variety, so I don’t have to worry about slamming them if I swing them shut when my arms are full of stuff.

One of the best finds for the basement was this cabinet. Normally $600 at PB and intended as a hutch for the top of a secretary, we got this one for $99 at the PB Outlet store. It had some damage on the one corner that we easily fixed with some epoxy and paint, and then TJ built some trim around the bottom to make it a free standing piece of furniture. It easily holds all my crafting books and magazines with space to spare.

My easel had a little make over and I made some curtains out of this amazing red polka dot fabric that I found. I just love turquoise and red in combination.

Another favourite for me in the room is my new and improved sewing table. When we bought the island pieces from Ikea, the two parts came with their own butcher block tops. We wanted to have one large countertop that had an overhang so I could sit at it, so we ended up with the two tops leftover. TJ took the tops, cut them down as required, routered out the opening for my machine, and used a system of 4×4′s for the legs (which we actually had leftover from the old sewing table as seen above). He added the cross pieces not only for the stability, but so that it matched the island in the centre of the room. I am going to ask my dad to make me some little stainless steel caps to go around the bottom of the feet, just like on the island. I painted out the 4×4′s and added a piece of peg board to hang some of my most frequently used tools.

Having the sewing machine level with the table top makes working on just about anything so much easier. And with the size of the table, working with big pieces is a breeze.

For a long time I have used a typesetter drawer for my threads. Spools on the bottom in the larger spaces, and bobbins for that colour in the corresponding small space above. But before I had walls, I had to leave it sitting on the sewing table. Now it is mounted out of the way (and free from bits of thread, fabric and batting). I used a little piece of scrap wood behind it at the bottom so that it is tilted a little bit. This keeps the spools from falling out.

Last weekend missbedora came down for a much overdue visit, and helped me revamp my bulletin board. A great friend gifted me some amazing red and turquoise fabric, so we covered the old bulletin board with batting, then the fabric, and the wrapped it in some thin white ribbon. I used some red map pins to create a tufted look. With the frame painted and reinstalled, it looks much much better than it did (especially since when I was taking it down in preparation for the construction, I dropped it and busted it.).

Also last weekend missbedora and I hung a decal that I had made (by another awesome friend).

This one was important to me. For a long time I was not abiding by this one, and it made me a really unhappy person. So this is a two part reminder for me: Don’t ever go back to the way you were, and if you are down in the studio doing something and it is not making you happy? Walk away. Last weekend though we took full this adage to heart and christened the studio with a Pinot Noir and chocolate cake

My red and black quilt, which never really had a good home before, is now proudly hung behind my loom.

The curtain rod that it is hung on is officially the best deal of the whole room. Regularly $44.95, marked first down to $11.95, I finally got it for $2.81!! That’s 95% off!

Behind the quilt I made a design wall with some leftover styrofoam insulation. I just covered it with some batting and a piece of flannel so that when I am working on a quilt I can stick them on the board rather than crawling around on the floor. The piece is just hung on a hook, so I can take it down and move it anywhere I need to.

Gosh, if you are still with me, thank you. You’re a trouper! One last shot, just cause it makes me happy.

I cannot thank everyone who helped out with this renovation enough for everything you have done. There is no way that it every would have been finished without your knowledge, skills, and hard work.

Most importantly though I need to thank TJ. Seriously, it is unbelievably how hard he has worked. All of this work was done on evenings and weekends, AFTER he had worked his full time job. He only took one day off work near the beginning of the process. Memorial day weekend we worked 3 solid 14 hour days. Not that I ever had any doubt before, but everything he did showed just how much he loves me. He never complained once (ok, their might have been a rather exhausted sigh as he emerged one night from sanding the drywall looking like he was covered in flour). To you sweetie, I cannot thank you enough.

The best part of all of this? It’s done! I have already used it a number of times, the results of which are coming in future blog posts. I can’t wait to use it for years to come.