Spring One Room Challenge // Garage Turned Studio Reveal
Welcome to the big reveal!! To say that this I was flying by the seat on my pants on this project is an understatement. Six weeks ago, I decided to participate in the One Room Challenge. During previous cycles, I've followed other blogger's journys in renovating and documenting a room in 6 weeks, I've always wanted to play along, and I finally threw my hat in this time, only to be sidelined for the worst reason possible, the loss of my dad. You can read my whole tribute post to my dad here, but he was my inspiration to work my butt off and finish in time for the reveal. Without further adieu, the after, a highly functional garage space that is half studio, half storage, and a home for my Vespa and a one mini VW bus.
Before, the garage, as many are, was a dirty mess. The floors were dirty, the workbench, covered in tools, nothing was organized and storage boxes were stacked on top of each other, instead of neatly placed on a shelf.
So, what did I do?
painted all the walls and ceiling, Polar Bear by Behr, my favorite white paint color
Painted the cabinets in Valspar "Swiss Coffee" which were recycled from my kitchen, which I removed to add open shelving, hung cabinets
Installed shelving on back walls for tools and paint
refinished the work bench
hung decorative shelf and peg board for organization
refinished the floors with Rust-oleum Rocksolid Marble in Mountain white
Installed a storage wall
unified storage to create a cohesive look
You can see my how I got here in these posts
My biggest challenge aside from the time constraints, was working with the concrete walls. I foolishly decided to put all my storage on the concrete blocks, leaving right wall free to use as a white backdrop for projects and photos. In order to hang anything on the concrete blocks you need to use lag shields and lag screws. For each screw you need to drill a whole into the concrete, many of them took at least 10 minutes to drill, and I estimate I needed about 46 screws, that's almost 8 hours of just drilling!!
Despite the challenges, I am thrilled with how this room turned out. It's so pretty that I don't want to mess it up, but I can't wait to start a project in this space.
Sources:
Storage Wall: Elfa storage system - drawers / wood crates / handled wood box / white tote bins (used as recycling on floor) / large white tote bin (on top shelf) / small white tote bins (on middle shelf)
Hanging organization: Rubermaid Fastrack System
Paint: Walls and ceiling - Behr Polar Bear / Floor - Rust-oleum Rocksolid Marble floor refinishing kit in Mountain White / cabinet paint - Valspar "Swiss Coffee"
Dresser - thrifted (refinished on this post) / work bench - left by previous owner, refinished using Minwax Antique Walnut / Rug - souvenir from Morocco (similar) / paper lantern - Elbow Grease Design
A BIG thank you to Linda at Calling It Home for pulling this all together. And another thank you to Rust-oluem for sponsoring the floor refinishing. And finally to Kathy Davies for the amazing photos! See all the amazing reveals here.
