Ta Daaaaaa !!!

At last ... my long awaited project is almost complete !

Just a trip to Ikea tomorrow to purchase lots of lovely bookcases and storage units, a visit by the carpenter to fit my beautiful workbench (I know, so workbenches shouldn't really be beautiful - more practical really), but it's made from lovely white gloss laminate so that it will reflect the light and brighten up the inside, and then I can move in to my new studio !!!

(The outside and windows / doors will be painted in the summer.

I have yet to decide on a colour but it will be something that will blend in with the garden)

I'm soooo excited. I have been working out of the spare room for almost a year now and things are getting quite ridiculous. I'm having to clamber over boxes and move stuff all the time so that I can reach whatever it is that I happen to need. And having 2 people working in the spare room at the same time just isn't possible. So, the time came to build a purpose-built studio ..... in the garden !

Regular readers of this little old blog will know that we are very fortunate to have a large garden, so building a studio in it seemed the obvious solution to my workspace problem. It also means that I can still work from home and keep an eye on the children, which would have been impossible if I'd had to rent somewhere.

So, at last, Blooming Felt will have a home of its very own - a fantastic studio with 2 mezzanines so that I can store extra supplies and all the kit I use at shows up, out of the way, and enough space left over to run workshops should I so wish, in the future. Finally, our house can now return to being a house, and not have masses of boxes stacked up in every (yes, every) room !

My only dilemma is should I whitewash the walls? I was really keen to have a completely white space so that it would show off all of my colourful felty goodies beautifully, but do I have the time or inclination to do it ?

If you're interested in doing something similar in your garden, I can highly recommend the company I used. Aarco are a wonderful family run company in Chester who will design and make studios / garden rooms etc to your exact specifications and then come and install it all for you. They've been here all week and as well as building my studio from scratch, had to first dismantle, move and reassemble our shed before work on the studio could begin. They managed everything in just 5 days and I couldn't have asked for a better company to come and do the work. Thank you Noella, Richard, Martin (and Vic the carpenter), without whom my fantastic new studio wouldn't exist !!

OK - I'm off to measure (yet again) the space in my studio and then look (yet again) at the Ikea website !!!

See you soon xxx