So many people have been interested in the creating of the studio in my garden, I thought I’d give it its own page for easy future reference!
Here’s the story in pictures:
When I look at this picture now, I wonder how on earth I could see beyond what was in front of me!!
- this was my starting point
When we bought the house, what is now the studio was once this overgrown dilapidated lean-to, which you’d struggle to descibe as a garage. It was built from an eclectic mix of concrete, wood, asbestos and tin. The floor was a mixture of old wooden pallets, sand and paving flags. The ivy wound its way everywhere, inside and out. Inside was dark (too dark for piccies unfortunately), damp and, quite frankly, a bit scary.
the old garage was demolished
Below is the same thing from another angle. That’s my front door in the background (which is really a side door), showing my commute to work!
- another view
The side door and window of the main brick-built garage, which opened into the old lean-to, was a bit old and rotten. I figured that, as they would become internal fixtures, they would rot no more if I treated them. This is a close-up of the windowframe:
- yukky windowframe
The wider view:
- the side door of garage
The concrete floor was put in:
concrete floor
The local cats (and even the birds!) made their mark on the newly-laid concrete:
paw prints in the concrete
There was some dodgy-looking wiring to sort out:
all plugged in and ready to fry
We got some walls:
walls going up
And then a window – salvaged by the builders from another site they were working on:
nearly there
and then:
roofless studio
and:
studio is getting a roof
Finally the roof was on:
the garden studio
I persuaded my teenage daughter to help out:
teen on a hot tin roof
Well, it’s a bit more cool felt roof than hot tin but that doesn’t have the same ring to it. This is what she’s up to:
painting the fascia
It got plastered inside:
plastered walls
Here it is from the outside, with walls, windows, guttering, fascia, a roof and even french doors!! (They came from the same place as the windows – another job the builders were on, so I very virtuously saved them from landfill. The most eco-friendly uPVC windows you ever did see!)
the studio is now built
The garden is looking like it needs a bit of attention, and it does. Things are happening slowly in the garden – it was very, very overgrown.
A path will be laid to the studio doors (recycled flags from the path I discovered in the overgrown lawn), and am deciding what to grow against the wall. It’s a very sheltered south-facing wall – I have a grapevine in a pot which might like to climb up a sheltered south-facing wall. It’s either that or a baby cherry tree (just a twig, really…) which might like to be fan-trained against it.
***
The Interior
The inside of the studio is now shaping up. I decided to have my main painting desk overlooking the garden. I know sometimes it’ll be too sunny, so I have another desk I can retreat to. But I wanted to be able to look out over the garden while I work – and it’s my space, so why not?
inside the studio
and a bit more of the same:
my messy desk
and closer to my desk, looking through the window. The desk is actually an old door, reclaimed from the house when it was a building site. Propped onto two frames, it makes a fantastic, big worktable.
studio desk overlooking garden
Behind the desk (below), there are shelves, which I use to dry items in between coats of paint. The window over the shelves looks into the garage, where I pack orders for delivery. This is the same window that had the yukky frame, earlier on this page. It’s amazing what a bit of woodrot-hardener, filler and paint can do, isn’t it?
- studio interior
Yes, I do know how lucky I am! I pinch myself daily!
I have serious studio envy over this! Wow – you lucky duck!