Dreams DO Come True!

I saw this meme the other day that made me laugh way too hard. The reason I laughed wasn’t that it was the funniest meme I’ve seen, but that it is more true than I care to admit. (See said meme to the right). You see…I am a collector of art supplies and I have been for a long time.

When we built our house 18 years ago, it was only my son and myself. I remarried soon after and added a husband to the mix. There were still only three of us in a 3 bedroom house, so there was an extra room for me to use for my scrapbooking supplies. I had so many scrapbooks and piles of paper and tools and needed somewhere to work on my hobby since scrapbooking was my creative outlet at the time. We turned the closet of what would be the guest room into a mini-studio space for me to work and just be able to close the door on my mess.

Fast-forward a few years to 2006 and we had a baby boy. Husband thought it would be nice for me to have a craft room and I did not disagree. The thought of my own room to work and craft and sew sounded so nice! We didn’t have space in the house anymore since the baby was in the former guest room. Our truck didn’t fit into the 3rd car garage and the empty space was just filling up with clutter, so Husband thought it would be a good space to turn into a “playroom”/craft room where I could work on my creative endeavors and the kids could play at the same time. It was definitely a labor of love as we slowly put together the playroom piece by piece. We added shelves and found an old discarded countertop to fix up and install. We added carpet and some kid furniture and the room became a combination playroom, craft room, guest room. I wanted to paint the walls fun, bright colors so that is what we ended up with. I drew some characters from the movie Cars on the walls. We had a child size table where we spent a lot of time coloring and creating in the house and now we could in the new playroom. We brought out some toys for the boys to play with. The only downfall to having the room in our garage was that the changes in temperature made it too hot or too cold to spend time out there in the middle of summer or winter. Our initial solution was an air conditioning window unit. It was loud and didn’t do much good to cool the room and protect my scrapbooks and art supplies. We eventually purchased a decent size heating/cooling unit, but it just couldn’t keep up with the high desert temperatures in the summer.

The year 2009 brought us another bouncing baby boy and I was busier as a mom so the playroom started to fill with clutter and became just a fancy place for storage. I was working full time and taking care of kids, so I didn’t really have time or energy for crafts and scrapbooking anyway.

It wasn’t until 2015 that we decided it was time to finally turn it into a proper craft room and studio. The daybed we were using for the occasional guest was long gone and the TV had been upgraded to a newer and more functional model. We cleaned the room up a bit and Husband and the boys added a countertop with drawers to create a jewelry station for me to work on my jewelry pieces. We repainted the walls a nice, neutral gray and painted the door and trim white. To help with the temperature issue, Husband added a drop grid ceiling, insulation and new lighting. We upgraded to a larger heating/cooling unit to help even things out as far as temperature goes. The unit was more effective but it still wasn’t comfortable to spend long periods of time out there.

Countertop installed

Putting the walls together

Enjoying the playroom

Set up and ready to go

Bouncing Boy number 4 came along in 2017 and by then, some of the art supplies had already migrated into the house and had taken root on the dining room table. It wasn’t efficient, but I was more into art than I had ever been (see About Me page for backstory), so I needed a creative space where I could easily access it and take care of kids at the same time, especially a baby. I occasionally had people over for an “arty party”, so I enjoyed having a work table we could gather around.

I didn’t know it at the time, but the changes and renovations were all moving me toward my dream studio and what I wanted it to be like. The carpet in the garage-room just didn’t work. It got dirty easily and was hard to clean. I definitely needed a wood floor. I loved the gray and white paint colors out in the playroom, so I wanted to stick with that color palette. I had a lot of supplies, so lots of storage was necessary. I also needed a work table so I can eventually have people over to have art time with or teach lessons. My learning experiences and Pinterest gave me some great ideas for when the reality of me having an art space could actually happen.

When the pandemic of 2020 happened and the world shut down, a couple of big life changes happened. My oldest son moved out and I was hired to teach Language Arts online full time. I needed a space to work and my son’s room became available. Husband jumped at the chance to make my dream studio happen. We moved my second-oldest son into First Son’s bedroom and then gutted the room that had originally been a sitting room, then an office, then most recently, my Second Son’s bedroom. It took about a month to get the walls painted, the cabinets and shelving installed, and the flooring in. I knew what I wanted because, well, Pinterest, but the reality of a blank “canvas” in front of me was the most amazing feeling. So many possibilities! It was fun to choose flooring, drawer handles, curtains, and all the little details that make the studio mine. Youngest Son and Cat love the studio too and want to be near me when I am in there working or creating. In fact, my youngest was so excited about the possibilities, he moved his shoes in before the room was even finished. :) It is such a happy space for me and I am looking forward to finishing the organizing in there and make it more functional. In the meantime, enjoy the pics below to see the renovation process. Thank you so much to my family for making it happen.

Until next time…