Studio Saga Part 2: all the furniture

My new studio space is move-in ready and I am moving in! My first priority was housing my wool for rug hooking. I painted two shelf units different whites, both were new unfinished real wood pieces. These are for my wool stash. I decided to place my wool shelves on either side of a window, with my cutter in the middle. Since I was moving my wool, I took the opportunity to cull out what I didn’t want and to reorganize colors and piles. This process is fun, as I am touching wool and drinking in all of its colorfulness. Kind of like how the sun gives us our dosage of vitamin D. Only this is vitamin W for WOOL. I was thinking that I could make a hobby of this very thing, just making luscious piles of color on lovely shelves. I suppose some might then accuse me of merely hoarding, which is what, I suppose, it all boils down to. So then, I am thankful that I have an excuse (rug hooking) to dabble in hoarding guilt free.

I bought a bookshelf from an unfinished furniture store (in the back corner) and faux finished it in off white over putty. Then to the left of the window I have a storage cupboard (that I also faux finished in a light neutral color) that holds wool strips for rug hooking, my 2 sewing machines and a serger. I love that this piece actually fooled a friend of mine into thinking it was a real antique cupboard! In the middle of the room is my worktable. Yes, it too got the beat up white finish. I found this at a thrift store and added casters. Next to it is a white set of drawers.

I found this piece at a yard sale several years ago. It was a tool and junk drawer in a garage with a brown wood stain, brass colored label plates, and wide wooden handles. It was ugly, but I could see the potential in it — after all it had all those wonderful drawers. I had seen a similar drawer unit on a swedish blog, painted white with cool red knobs. I knew what to do. Faux finish in white. Spray paint the brass-tone label plates. Get rid of ugly handles and fill in the holes. Add red knobs. Plus I added casters. Did I mention how much I love casters? Now this is my favorite piece!

Since we happened upon the subject of casters, here’s what I found not too long ago at our local vintage shoppe. This was sitting out in front of the shoppe as I was about to drive by, and I pulled over very quickly. I had in mind that I could wheel around piles of aforementioned wool… Or even piles of semiprecious stones as I beaded. Or mosaic tiles as I mosaic-ed. Whatever. I had to have those wheels.

On the other end of this room is my dye kitchen. Most often I dye wool yardage for rug hooking. As you can see there is still lots more work to be done in the dye kitchen.

I have a vintage acme kitchen that I found next the the road in my neighborhood. There was a free sign on it. My son happened to be with me and he hauled it into the back of my car. It needed a rust treatment, a coat of paint, and a new faucet.

Well, that is my update on my new studio space. Here is my wool cutter for cutting strips to rug hook with. An old yellow painted shoe-shine box makes the perfect prop for it, with space below for the cutter heads. I bought this from fellow rug hooker Nola Heidbreder from St. Louis. The green vintage table below holds the other tools. After all this stressful building stuff, I have had very little time to create hooked rugs. Looks like I am ready to hook now. Thanks for stopping by ~ Karen