We have been converting a bedroom in Mister’s house into a studio for me.  We are almost done, so I’ve got pics of the progress.

This is what the south wall looked like when we started.  It was a closet with sliding doors.

The walls are plaster so there were some mighty big cracks.  This is after I spackled and sanded all the cracks and started apply Kilz.

TADA!  This is that area now.  After we removed the closet and installed shelves.  More info about Alice and her little door below.

It might be difficult to see the perspective in these pictures, but this door to a little closet, is only about 4 feet high.  When I saw it, I thought of Alice going through the tiny door.  Mister’s son drew Alice on there for me and I started painting her today.  It’s much harder than I thought because it’s made of bead board, which makes it tough to get the lines to go where you want them to.

This is the north wall.  When I moved from TX 2 years ago, I stored a lot of my stuff.  So I’m just now getting all my art things out of storage. It is so exciting to see things I haven’t used in so long.  And it’s going to be unbelievable to have such a big room with room for storage of everything.  I’m hoping it will help me keep it less messy than the tiny places I’ve had to create in before.

The rest of the north wall with my bookcase.  I can’t believe I have a whole bookcase in my studio for all my books!!  There will be another smaller one, too, when I finish painting it.  It’s going to hold all my journals.

This is the west wall.  I hope to paint this big shelf, but it’s made of cheap stuff so I doubt it’s going to take paint very well.  On the middle shelf is the coolest tool box that I inherited from my brother-in-law who recently passed away.  It’s got lots of tiny drawers for small tools.

Lastly here is the east wall with my art table. Sorry it’s so dark.

The walls will eventually all be painted yellow, but that will have to wait til after the wedding.

I finally have all the cracks filled in and almost everything, including the ceiling painted with Kilz.   Now I’m going to paint all the walls yellow.  In the picture below, you can see the part where the celing slants into the wall.  On that slanted part I’m going to paint the word “create” in huge letters.

I’m not done with this wall (below)  because Mister is going to help me install shelves on the wall from the little door to the end.  Mister’s son, who is a fantastic artist, is going to be at Mister’s house on Sunday.  I’m hoping he will have time to draw Alice on the little door for me!

Another project we are working on is a dining table.  The table that I had when my kids were growing up is an nice, oak pedestal table.  I haven’t had room for it for about ten years, so my niece was using it.  She moved recently and doesn’t have room in her new place so she gave it back to me.   Mister and I are gluing the pedestal back together because it has gotten dry over the years.

We glued one section, and it’s in clamps curing.  We’ll do all the other sections, one by one.

At a thrift store I found this cool shelf that’s about 4 feet high and 12 inches wide.  It is shelves (cubby holes) that are about 4 inches deep.  And they have little clear doors that close in the front of each shelf.   I didn’t buy it but I am hoping it’s still there when I go back.

Here are some pictures of the current progress on my new studio.

This area was a closet.  We removed the short walls on the ends of this area to open up more space.  We are going to build shelves on this wall.   Don’t you love that little door?  I’m going to paint Alice on there

This is the opposite wall that was painted a salmon color.  I’m painting it with Kilz so it won’t take as many coats of the yellow that I”m going to use.

The pictures don’t seem very impressive but Mister and I are both verrry sore today so we definitely did a lot of work in there yesterday.

Today I’m going to spackle holes and cracks then continue painting with the Kilz.

With the line of the roof, it’s hard to get a perspective in these pictures.  If it helps, that ladder is 6 feet tall.

One of my favorite books is Where Women Create: Inspiring Work Spaces of Extraordinary Women. I have spent hours looking through that book at the lovely studios of the creative women there.    I think I like it so much because these are ideal spaces.  They are organized, decorated and clean!

However, most the artists I know, while they may have a designated space to create, don’t have beautiful, clean studios.  I hear many more conversations about the mess and the over abundance of supplies, than I hear about what fabric to choose for the chaise in their studio.

Most creative people have very interesting decor in their homes, though.  The ideas don’t stop at the studio door.   Terri St. Cloud has a pole that she painted in her dining room.  Nici D created the coolest “door” to her studio out of torn rags.  I wish I still had pictures of both of these so you could see.

I know that a lot of you must have interesting things you’ve done in your homes.  Will you share them with me?  Leave a comment telling me what you’ve done and either give me a link to a picture or email me the pic.  I want to make my own little tribute…  I’ll call “Where Real Women Create”. [Not implying that the wonderful women in the book are not real women,  just that we didn't clean up for a camera crew.]

I came across this picture lately from a previous decorating job I did in my home.  I painted the sunflower on the wall, then hung a frame on the wall to seem to frame the flower.  My family thought it was the strangest thing they’d ever seen, but I thought it was lovely.

So, please fill my comment page with the things you’ve done in your home.  I really want to see!