Both Sides of the Story

After posting that looooong missive yesterday, I walked out into the living room and was confronted with the art mess I've created in there over the past couple of years. Then I realized that so far my blog has been telling only one side of the story, since I've only shown the cleaned-out room and the new organizational stuff.

This is what my living room looks like right now. It's at its absolute worst since I returned from Art Unraveled (a week-long art retreat) a couple of weeks ago.



So now you see why I need an art studio! And why Mark barely hesitated when I told him I wanted Lianne's room, after I already claimed Kyle's for my office and he's still stuck out in the garage. Our deal is that I will keep all of my stuff out of the garage and he can have that entire space for his office and projects, plus we get our living room back (which is the only living space we have in this house).



Anyway, there IS some underlying organization under all that mess. If you look closely you'll see little drawers for mounted rubber stamps, and binders (stacked on the rocking chair) for the unmounted ones. Plus little boxes for stuff like embossing powders, and clear glass jars for all my buttons.



But it's just completely out of control at this point and I can't possibly get any work done in that space. Now you know why I'm so motivated to get the art room set up!

Painting is DONE!

I've been working like a maniac (seems to be my M.O.) and my studio is painted! Man, painting different colors is a pain because my walls are highly textured and taping doesn't really work, the paint leaks underneath in lots of spots. So then I have to spend lots of time touching up with a teeny-tiny paintbrush. But I decided to let it be IMPERFECT! Once all the furniture and stuff is in, I don't think the jaggedy corners will be noticable.

I really like the colors, but I seem to be in the minority. Lianne (my daughter, who lived in this room for 19 years), walked in this weekend and kind of rolled her eyes. But she did concede that since I'm "middle aged," I can go crazy with color (this was in another conversation about a pink polka-dot purse my mom got me to carry Tinkerbell in; for those of you who don't know, she's my four-pound Chihuahua), but I think it applies here too.

Wow, I'm wordy today. Anyway, here are my colors:





I really hate that dark bookcase in there. It goes beautifully in my office, which has dark woods, but I've moved the trundle bed in there and now the bookcase won't fit. Don't tell Mark yet (he had to take the trundle apart to move it), but I may move the bed back into the studio so the bookcase can go back into the office. Gotta save some room for guests, lest I become an art hermit!

My first organizational tool is two cube thingies from Target, along with some canvas and wicker baskets that fit into the cubes. Of course, they only had three of the wicker baskets left, so Mark is going to search for three more at other Targets while he's on a business trip to No. Cal. this week.



I love the way these units fit right on the closet shelf. I think I'll label them with tags tied to the handles.

Now my challenge is to find or make some piece of furniture to use a work station to sit in the middle of the room. I was thinking of two bookcases, back to back then spread apart, with a door on top. But I saw an awesome kitchen island at an unfinished furniture store that would be perfect. Unforfunately, it's $500. But I may convince Mark to go look at it with me today. Oooh, I have a drawing of it I can scan.



It would be so perfect, but I think we'd have to assemble it inside the room!

I'm happy with my progress so far, but I think this furnuture thing might take a while. I'm working on PATIENCE!