My new art cabinet.

My dad loves woodwork. Which is really useful when I want need some new furniture and have something specific in mind (can we talk about my fabulous 4.2m long full height bookshelf?). So when I mentioned something about needing a couple of storage cabinets for my studio, my dad (who really should know better, he’s only known me for how long now?) told me to just draw up some plans and he’d make it happen. I’m pretty share he thought it would just be a normal cupboard with a few shelves.

Ha. Hahahahahahaha. Because really? I have the opportunity to custom design a storage solution, OF COURSE I’m going to overthink and over design it. The first one came last year, and is a delight of drawers and cubby holes to hold my fabric, and my stamping and scrapbooking supplies. The second, for various reasons, took a bit longer, and was finally painted and installed a couple of weeks back, and I am seriously in love.

Look at all that beautiful arty goodness all organised and easy to find. And when did I end up with so much paint? (More to the point, how do I have so much paint and still never have the right colour????)

As I was packing it, I noticed the braces across the door would be just about the perfect width to prop my stencils on. Just my luck, the mister was off on a Bunnings run, and stuck his head into the studio. “Hey, just heading to Bunnos, you need anything?” We-he-ell…wouldn’t say no to a staple gun. Nothing fancy, just a hand one. Get me a price, please? So off he toddles, and predictably, the message comes through. $250-$300. Wait, what? Around this point I figured we’d had some miscommunication, and requested a picture because I was pretty sure what I was thinking about and what he was looking at were two completely different things. I jumped on the website, and sure enough, the little hand staple guns I had in mind started around $17. He text me back a picture of a POWERED hand staple gun. CORRECT staple gun located, purchased and delivered to me, I’m still not sure why he though that Little Miss Clumsy should really be trusted with that much firepower. Thankfully, I managed to attach a few strips of tape to the door without stapling myself (yay me!), and as expected, it is just the perfect spot for my stencils.

The outside is the same colour as my main craft cupboard (which I can’t believe I haven’t blogged yet!) – it’s a beautiful charcoal called Ticking by Dulux (though we had it mixed up on a Taubmans base).

Slowly, my vision for this room is coming together. Next step is the children art desk, which has been up cycled from an unused study desk, and is just awaiting painting (in the same grey), and some pegboard to finish off. Then next on the list is painting the walls, as well as ripping up the carpet and painting the floor. Longer term is adding some drawers to the built in bookshelves to make them more user friendly, and even longer term is ramping up the insulation to make it a more pleasant environment in the depths of winter and the height of summer. But baby steps. First, the desk. It’s sanded and ready to paint, and top of the list for when the children go back to school. My goal is to have it in by next weekend…though then I’m all out of excuses for procrastinating on tidying up in there. Drats. What’s the opposite of a silver lining?