Rusty, Old, Chalk Paint Bathroom Break! Who's coming?

I showed you my floor, now for another fun project in my studio that's finally finished up!

Once upon a time I imagined a bathroom in the right hand 
corner of the studio, see the pipes sticking up?...

After the plumbing was in and the barn enclosed, we thought some walls might be nice.

I walked you through my distressed floor in this post

I was finally able to get the stain and sealer on the floor, now it looks like this:

I'm pretty durn happy about how it turned out! I love old wood floors! This is as close as I'm gonna get! 

Now to show you what I really wanted to show you...

After the sheetrock was installed, I took some of the tin scraps from the outside of the barn and nailed  'em up to the outside walls of the bathroom...

Next I used a smattering of Modern Masters Metal Effects (our local hardware store has been selling it at 50% off, sadly I think they are clearing their inventory and won't be selling it anymore), mostly the Iron, but a little copper and bronze also...

After painting the whole thing and letting it dry completely, I sprayed Modern Masters rust activator fairly generously randomly and with a few spritz of blue patina spray as well. For the spray to activate you need to let it dry totally. After the first layer was dry I repeated it 2 more times which really allows the activator to do it's job and deepens the rust color. I finished it off with a water based clear coat and some old barn wood to trim the door. 

Oh, the door. That would be another chalk paint project, definately didn't want to mess with priming and painting with latex. 

Started with a random mess of blue and green. 

I know it doesn't look like it, but I had a plan.

This was obviously followed by a nice coat of red. I left areas of the blue and green peek through the red. I then sanded a few areas to show even more of the underlying colors as well as sanding down to the bare wood. A nice coat of wax (dark in the corners and crevices, with clear everywhere) and this is what I have now...

Up close detail, sorry it's a little blurry, just squint your eyes tiny and it clears right up!

Maybe not...

So there you have it.

My bathroom is now ready for the "essentials" to be installed.

I will be really "relieved" when that is done.

What?

I had to sneak in a little potty humor, I just had to.

What d'ya think?

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

It makes my day when you take the time to comment,

and if you aren't a follower yet join the fun! I love a party!!

Next project... 

bathroom counter and chalk paint vanity... 

stay tuned!!

Recycled wood floor...on the wall!

The studio is coming right along!! If you are new here..Welcome! If you aren't new you already know about my "barn-turned-studio" saga. After months and months and months and months... Okay, since last September-ish we have been working on the overhaul of this barn in my backyard...

I can hardly believe what a mess it was! Soo much work, but I loved it then, and I love it now!!

I've been busy working on the interior of the upper floor, which is my new studio!

I've been so excited to show you one of the projects I've been working on this week.

It all started with a visit to my favorite second hand remodeling store...

Habitat for Humanity's Restore

They had a big rack of miscelaneous odds and ends of different hardwoods and laminant flooring.

I had this idea, and I bought a bunch of it, and then had to go back and buy a bunch more because I loved it soo much and decided to do much more than I had planned on.

Most people would be buying flooring to put on the floor.

Not me.

Remember, I'm the weird one.

I started with a pile of mismatched tongue and groove slats.

This is just a small portion of the load I had.

So lucky to have some great kids around to help me load and unload all that wood!

Anyway, since each style of flooring had a different tongue and groove setup I had to get out the table saw and cut all of the "tongues" off. 

Yeah, it took a while.

Yes, it made a mess.

Yup, I didn't mind because thennnnn....

I got to use a nail gun and nail em all up to the walls...

 I love all the different woods together.

The boards are also different thicknesses, which means there is a little dimension to the wall,

Some boards stick out a little farther than others, and I like that!

They are a little dust right now, and generally a good blogger would have it all finished and staged cute, but I just had to show you! Besides, I've got to get busy on the floors before I can make things look super finished in there. Staging and "cute" will have to wait for now. I've got work to do. No cute here. Just me and dust and grubby clothes. No cute yet.

So there you have it. Just a quick post today.

Can't wait to show you my bathroom vanity.

I really mean I can't wait.

So here is just a teaser...

Yes, it involved power tools.

Yes, It included Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.

And Yes, it started at the Habitat for Humanity Restore.

What do you think of all my recycling?
Have you ever seen flooring used on walls before?

Sound like something you might want to try?

I'd love to hear what you think :)

Off to pop some paint lids and find my happy place!

A little story about a barn...

Once upon  a time...there was this really cool, but really old and unusable barn in my back yard. It looked like this:

When the king and queen of the land bought the house next to the barn, the queen could hardly contain her excitement for what 

could become of this barely inclosed building.

She would sometimes go out and sit in the barn. 

She would even cry sometimes because of what she knew could be there someday, 

but it seemed so impossible at times. 

She thought it would take years 

to see her dreams fulfilled. 

She was wrong. 

After months of hard work, dust, pain and too much money she now goes out to the barn and sometimes cries again, but not for the same reasons as before....now she cries because she is so blessed and because of the amazing opportunities she has been given. She sometimes cries because after only a year of living in her new home, 

the barn now looks like this:

See those windows on top? 

Those are the windows that the queen and all her amazing creative friends will look out while they learn and paint, and play together in the new studio! 

Do you see on the side of the barn, the dark things leaning on the side of the barn? 

Those are the stairs that are waiting to be installed on the back of the barn so that the queen can start moving into the top floor of the barn. 

The stairs have been sitting there for 2 weeks...2 very long and painful weeks for the queen. 

She is on the verge of screaming 

"Off With Their Heads!!" 

at any given moment. 

But she has more control then that. 

So instead she cries a little at night and waits at her window every day, all day for the installers. 

She hardly moves, only to eat...and well a couple of other things. It's a sad, sad story.

*This is the part of the story for that sound effect of the record scratching and everything comes to a screaching hault and everything changes to reality in the story* 

Okayyyy so I am not a queen, and I'm not really sitting by the window every day, but most of the other details are spot on. 

And yes, I am married to a king ;)

Soon, verrrrry soon I will take you on a tour of the inside. And soon, verrrry soon I will be finishing the inside and begin creating and 

painting and playing and teaching!! 

I'm soooooo excited for all of those to get going!! 

And one more thing before I go...

I've been thinking... 

Wouldn't it be great if the studio was done, and I could start creating some amazing art and refinish all this amazing furniture, and start teaching some super fun classes and have somewhere to SELL all of my super great pieces in, like a storefront?! 

Wouldn't it be great?!

Would you take classes? 

Would you shop at my store? 

Would you be super excited with me?

Would you please call my installers to come and put my stairs in already??????

Waiting in line.....

Do you ever feel like you are living in some kind of time warp? Does it sometimes feel like the stars are still and everything is in sloooowwww motion? Like when you are waiting in line at Disneyland in the scorching sun and there is a small child who is screaming about the potty and his batman underwear. Sometimes it seems that the one thing you are waiting for can't come soon enough, and sometimes it seems that it will be sooo long before it happens! On the other hand, in this time warp, things fly by so fast that you hardly remember what happened last week because of the multitude of events since then. At the same time that everything is moving in slow motion life is whizzing by like a

Jack Russell Terrier in the morning.

Well, that has been my life for the past few months. Remember the barn? Refer to my earlier post of the before pictures. Here is where we are as of a few days ago...

Love fresh lumber and straight lines! progressssssss :)

My Studio area. New floors that will not give way under my feet is a plus!

Windows and, yes, a potty for my future bathroom! Got them all at the
Habitat for Humanity Re-Store! LOVE that place! 

Studio area, plumbed for my Utility sink and washer/dryer to clean all those messy rags! :)

Where the potty will sit :O

We got Plumbing!!!!

This is an old gas tank that was in all the "stuff" piled high in here when we cleaned it out.
We are going to modify it and turn it into my utility sink! Gonna be sooo cool!

Possibly a confusing picture, but I like it! I'm so happy I get to keep the inside of the roof the way it is, with just a few new boards for added support. This just makes my heart go pitter-pat!

Not a bad view out the front!

Who's gonna clean up this mess!!! My backyard is a construction zone!

So while I'd love to be posting pictures of all of the wonderful pieces of furniture I have in storage waiting to be loved on a little I will have to be content with pictures of my dream in the making. I talked at the start of this post about waiting in line at Disneyland. I'm tellin' ya, I CAN"T wait to get on this ride!!!

I wanna ride! I wanna ride! I wanna ride!

*sigh*



Back to the Barn

Alright, I have diverged enough. To save you the effort of looking back to other posts, I'll show you what the building we lovingly call The Barn looked like a few short (or not so short) weeks ago...

After pulling hundreds of nails, muscles and hairs from my head, here is where we are now...

...ahem...

...drum roll please?....

It's actually a little more bare than this pic even, but you can imagine it with nothing but the steel poles supporting the roof, no wood left! That was a lot of work!

This is my studio space before..

And this is what it looks like now!!! Wahoo! I love progress :)

Hopefully my life as a construction worker is almost over and I can turn the rebuild over to the "real" construction workers! If all goes well we should be seeing the plumber, electrician, concrete, and framing contractors all this week!!! AHHHHH!!! I don't know if I can sleep tonight!!

Brace yourselves, there's some change coming!

One step closer to having my very own amazing studio and one day closer to getting back to work on the real passions that drive me!

 (other than my wonderful family :)

I have dust in my lungs...

It's been about a week of demolition. A week. Really? My muscles and joints would beg to differ, but the calendar doesn't lie. With the help of my wonderful friend Mandy, we have torn through the barn from one end to another. I figure that this building has been here for 35-40 years and it had the ick to show it! In the back room we tore off board after board of tongue and groove maple which was on the interior walls. It looked like this...

And now we have this:

I can't wait to install some of this on my office wall in the house!

Now for the rest of the barn. Here is a small pictorial of our progress. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Right?

Remember before:

And now....

That was the easiest wall to come down! Leave it to my hubby! :)

Good job hubby!

After hundreds of nails holding hundreds of tongue and groove boards, removing icky icky icky insulation with all kinds of animal "stuff" in it and lots of sore muscles on me and Mandy we now have:

This is the upper floor, you know, the place where my studio and showroom will be!!!

It's still really rough around the edges, but boy howdy! (yes, I did just say that)

We have gotten a LOT done!

So there you have it. With a hacking cough due to the crap in the air, I sit back and am so thankful for the progress, and for Mandy! Couldn't have done it without her!

I can't wait to show you all the treasures we have found! I don't want to overload you all in one post, so I will wait for my next post, which may just be within an hour or so :)