Since moving into our new home replete with the man-cave for MrD and the dinky third bedroom for my crafting endeavours, I have been acquiring furniture; painting said furniture; arranging yarn onto new shelving (lovingly put together by MrD in said man cave) and generally making myself at home in my new creative space.
Here is a series of photos showing how I did up an old bureau bought through Gumtree. I love that site now! It is slightly addictive, scrolling through all the old junk and imagining what it would look like with a bit of tlc. I just have to make sure I don't buy things which won't fit in the house!
To renovate this item I first took all the handles off and separated out all the internal parts. Then I borrowed a sander and took off a layer of varnish, filled a few holes and painted over a layer of white primer. Next, I applied two coats of a dulux eggshell for wood in a lovely bright turquoise on the outside and a chalk white on the inside of the hutch and drawers, masking off the leather inlay in the desk. Finally, once completely dry, I buffed over a coat of dark oak Briwax which dulled it down slightly and gave it a slightly aged look. It also stained the new wood handles and got into the details of the mouldings, making them stand out nicely.
I am so happy with my bureau. It is the right size to write at, make jewellery, package up orders and sometimes I just love to sit at it and feel inspired, thinking happy, crafty thoughts...
I wanted a stool to sit on at my desk so I went hunting in the thrift shops and found this one for a fiver. It was upholstered in the latest linoleum of all things! I removed the lino and there was some good, firm foam underneath.
I then found this lovely pattern on Solvieg's blog. I have mentioned her before here - she is one clever mama! Although the pattern is for a cushion I adapted it to make a long piece to fit over the seat and created two striped panels for the sides. Amazingly, with only one drama when my staple gun broke and I had to borrow my Grandma's (seriously, that woman has everything!) it all came together really nicely and here is the finished item.
Next, a lovely thing happened to me. A brilliant lady at my work - Debbie, Gave me a massive spool of Hoooked Zpaghetti yarn (a kind of t-shirt yarn) in hot pink to play with.
I had a wander through blogland and found this great pattern from the talented young Wink of acreativebeing.com for her Mandala Floor rug. I adapted it slightly as I have a small space and only had one ball of the yarn. Still, I was really happy with the result and I may just have enough room for another one when I get more yarn. I recommend the t-shirt yarn to anyone and reckon it would be great for beginners. I used a 15mm hook and it was great working on such a giant scale after all the double knit I normally use!
I really enjoyed stashing all my yarn into the massive shelves MrD put up for me. Here are a few sections - I couldn't get back far enough to fit it all into one shot!
I decided with my acrylic yarns to organise them by colour onto the larger shelves, but I kept my posher, cotton yarns in their weight categories. They make me so happy, sitting together so harmoniously on the shelves!
The last thing I made for my craft room was a door stop. During these warm, Summer months we have had nearly all the windows in open and this had created a few crosswinds at times! My door kept slamming shut so I thought about making something I could prop it open with.
I decided on a cute little toadstool, making it up as I went along. I filled the base with pebbles and gravel inside some old tights, and the cap with stuffing. I attached crocheted circles and pale buttons to make the spots. I love how cute it looks!
So you can see that a great creative space is coming together. I am so very nearly there! The only problem now is that I really need a chair, a comfy one with arms for hooky time, but one which is small enough not to take up the whole room. Once I have this final item I can really start using the space as I intended. Until then, my hooky time will be spent on the sofa downstairs, although I have a great jewellery making station and desk to sit and type my blog posts at!
I think that's enough for now but I'll be back soon with news of a craft group I am working to form - our first social is next week!
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