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Last January I decided my office was long overdue for a facelift. For many years it has been a dark room full of crap and spiders - essentially the dumping ground for everything I didn't know what to do with and then some. Among other things, it held big bulky furniture, an enormous glass case that held boxed up work, piles of empty boxes and other packing supplies, and a wall devoted to CD's. And I only had access to the desktop a handful of times in the many years I have had the space. So it was high time I got rid of spider filled dark corners and made proper homes for the things that need to be stored here.
This is the office BEFORE the make-over but after I had already started removing things. It was waaaaay worse before this picture!
Voila! Several coats of paint, a new door, floor, cabinets, and desk (among other things) later!
There were some bigger needs that prevented me from doing this until I had funds saved up. I needed to have some internal electrical work done, add outlets, move wires, etc - the type of thing that required a professional. I hired Evergreen Construction Group based nearby and they were fantastic. Dylan and Jason are a super duo and I'll definitely work with them again on future projects.
I also ripped out the tiny wall in the corner and redid it to gain 4 inches of floor space. But mostly it was to expose things to make wiring easier. The most exciting thing they did was add an in-wall heater! The studio is very cold in the winter (and ridiculously hot in the summer) so I'm thrilled to have a space that heats up easily and efficiently. Down the line I hope to change the lights and add a ceiling fan but for now I'm quite pleased.
The view from my desk! Not only do I have a great breeze in the summer with 2 open windows, but there's a real grown up heater on that right wall! Plus it's fun to dress up the mannequin with jewels and have a home for some prints from my Lick series.
The view from the rest of the studio. I heavily debated this one... I had a new custom door made!
The old door was hollow with a crappy frosted window that opened. I replaced it with a clear window (nice to actually see what's happening in the rest of the shop) and a solid core door to help block out the noise.
I appreciate this door every time I'm in here and am thankful for the decision to go for it. It feels safer and I can actually take phone calls and the door drowns out the sounds of heavy loud equipment on the other side.
I added a wall of cabinets with lots of storage. Thank goodness for proper storage! It took me forever to decide on cabinets because no one had exactly what I wanted (well, within my budget anyway). In the end I went with Ikea kitchen cabinets (they have gotten much easier to put together btw). I custom made the two glass display cabinets by adding track and glass doors to the front of two of the basic Ikea boxes. I'm super happy with the result - a nice home for some of my sculptures. My little collection of copper vessels from Santa Clara Del Cobre are on the counter on the left.
Another big thing I did was add a floor. Previously, it was chipped painted concrete that gave the room an extra chill in the winter. After crying several times from back pain when putting one of these snap together floors in my jewelry studio during that remodel, I decided I wasn't up for it this time. In came Scott Stevens with LS Carpentry. Scott also helped install the white counter and drywall the little wall repair mentioned earlier. I lucked out working with Scott, he's great!
And there you have it!
It took 7 months longer than expected but feels amazing to have a clean and bright organized space. Hopefully now I'll win the never ending battle against the spiders and sprawl of stuff.
Now I'm ready to discuss your custom art or jewelry project! Email me to discuss and we can meet in this beautiful space!
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20 music box sculpture designs telling the stories that make a house a home. Originally displayed in a larger art installation titled Constructing Deconstruction, each individual box is only available in an edition of 10.