(My apologies for the strange contrast in photo sizes contained in this post; I'm still having technical issues. User error, I'm sure.)
The closet-to-playspace project is finally finished.
Finally.
Finished.
Except that it's the kind of space that I could keep working on for a long, long time; adding little details here, little surprises there, until the grandshoots are all grown up.
For blogging purposes, though, I really am going to call it finished.
(For today.)
Remember these 'before' photos?
It was a storage area for rarely used things, and it had lost its carpeting in a plumbing leak nightmare.
I
It had neutral colored walls, and we had ripped out most of the floor trim.
The first thing I did (with a little help from Miss Helping Hands Hannah), after clearing out the space, was to paint the walls with Eucalyptus Leaf paint color from Behr.
I love the color; it's so bright and cheerful.
The Prince and I put in the new flooring, which was given to me by my Leetle Brudder.
It's a wonderfully easy product to install (unless, of course, you are working in a space with a 37" ceiling height that slants to nothing at one end); there is no glue required, it has an easy score-and-snap fitting process, and we were especially glad that the preferred sub-flooring is bare concrete.
(Insert BIG thank you to Leetle Brudder here.)
After the flooring was in, I painted the new trim and used my hand-saw and miter box to cut the corners and joins.
That was some work, but I got to use my new air compressor/nail guns to install it, and that was some fun!
Raise your hand if you got new power tools for Christmas!
Love me some power tools!
When we decided to make an art/reading space at the front of the closet, we knew we'd have to have additional lighting: the only light in the space was a bare bulb mounted at one edge of the 37" ceiling at the back (which the Prince removed and replaced with recessed lighting nearby).
The Prince installed the new light fixture just over the desk space at the front.
It was Plan B, but it was the only place where we could tap into existing power (located on the hallway side of the wall).
It is just an inexpensive vanity light fixture, but it is amazing how much more like a room it makes the space feel.
I love Prince Charming.
After the interior was finished, it was on to building the forward-facing bookshelf and the fold-down art desk, from the plans which Ana White so kindly posts (for free!) on her website.
I think I went to Home Depot at least once a day during this portion of the project.
Actually, I think I went to Home Depot at least once a day during the entire project; I was very inefficient!
After I had the desk built, and had the pieces for the bookshelf all cut, I spent an afternoon with my friend, Jeni, and she and I had problem after problem putting the shelf together and trying to install hinges on the desk.
We had power tool problems, jig problems, design problems, and just plain problem problems.
But Jeni was a sport and we got some things finished, she taught me a lot, and she put some great trim at the bottom of the bookshelf.
Here she is carefully measuring...
...and marking.
She's a pro.
See the pencil in her teeth?
That's the sign.
Or is that impressive saw the sign?
Well, just take my word for it (and get a friend like Jeni, if you're going to do some building).
After all the building, came a lot of sanding and painting, and let me just tell you right here: I'm so glad I did the priming and first coats of paint before I assembled all these projects, because it was a lot more difficult to apply the second coat of paint afterward.
After finishing the desk and bookshelf, I built a toy shelf with some 1x12's which were left over from one of the Prince's home-maintenance projects.
Then my power sander decided to go to heaven.
So, there sat my naked toy shelf; propped on one end, with my arm-powered back-up sander resting on top, just waiting to give me a good work out.
More bonus bicep work; I hope my trainer reads my blog.
I had drawn up my own simple plans for this shelf, because it needed to hold specific containers and fit in a specific space.
Thing is, the sides reminded me an awful lot of tombstones.
I decided to paint some stripes on them
My friend, Miss B (of Zentangle fame), gave me a great tip for painting clean stripes.
After your tape is in place, using the paint color of the stripes which are underneath the tape, apply just a little paint to all edges of the tape to seal it; once it has dried, you can paint your contrasting color without fear of it bleeding under the tape.
After my stripes were in place, I knew I needed to add a little graphic goodness to the rounded space at the top of the sides.
I found an elephant silhouette that I liked (on the web somewhere) and printed it out.
I laid some graphite transfer paper on top of the shelf...
...and laid my elephant silhouette over it and traced the design with a pencil.
I've read that you can use newspaper to transfer designs in this way, as the ink will transfer to your project, but I didn't try it; I already had the graphite paper.
The transfer came out like this:
I used some left-over, bright green, wall paint and a small craft brush to color in the design.
It took two coats, and it isn't decal-smooth, but it serves my purpose.
I used the same technique to transfer the grandshoot's names, but I colored them with some of the brown chalkboard paint (I was very much into no-more-spending at this point).
Please notice, if you are reading this, any Shoot-of-Mine, that there is room for several more names on this side, and six more on the other (though there is infinite room in my heart for any additional grandshoots you might give me).
Some time during this planning/building/painting process, Miss Mary Mack brought me these chairs, which she'd picked off her neighbor's big-junk-pick-up heap:
She thought maybe I could use them for the playspace project.
She was correct.
Aside from the missing seat, they were in perfectly good condition, had safety latches to keep little ones from pinching their fingers while trying to fold them up, and they were FREE!
Also, unlike so many things of this type, the seats and backs were screwed in, rather than riveted; which meant I could actually take them apart and put them back together.
I "just happened" to have everything I needed to re-finish them, except a scrap of plywood (which my Bro-in-Love gifted me from his scrap pile), and a piece of foam (a trip to Joann's solved that) to make a new seat for the yellow chair.
I disassembled them...
...and cut patterns for new seat and back covers (from the paper which had been stuffed inside a purse I'd recently purchased - I save everything) .
I laid out the two orange fabric fat-quarters (which I'd purchased at a sale in October just because I liked them)...
...and discovered that they were just big enough to do the job!
Yipee!
The piece of clear vinyl I had left over from another recently completed project (ah, so many projects that haven't yet had their day in the sun) was also just big enough to cover these chair parts.
I had two large sheets of orange paper in my studio which sufficed for the bottoms of the chairs.
Et voila!
Seating for the fold-down art desk!
Thank you, Miss Mary Mack!
Sam-I-Am came up with some really wonderful ideas for the playspace, too.
Some of them I haven't yet implemented (see what I mean about adding and adding and adding?), but the one that I did use is so wonderful, that I wish I could say I'd thought of it myself.
He suggested that I build a very narrow shelf and install it just a few inches down from that low ceiling at the back, all around the perimeter of that area, to hold little things like Lego men, army men, etc.
I built it using 1x2's and quarter-round.
I had to hand saw those mitered corners, too (biceps, biceps).
After I'd gotten it all installed, I had the wonderful thought that the wall above the shelf, which was, of course, turquoise...
...really needed to be orange.
It only took four coats of paint to fix that.
It was worth the extra work (and the perma-cramp in my hiney). I think.
I owe a big thanks to Sam-I-Am for putting great creative thought into this project.
Thanks, Sam-I-Am!
So, now that I've taken vast amounts of blog space to give you all the process details, and show you bits and pieces, would you like to see how it all came together?
Oh, wait!
One more thing...
The very last thing I did while building/assembling the projects for this playspace, was to install the Plan B fold-down desk supports.
I decided to use the metal "chain" supports Ana White used on her own project, rather than the hinges she recommended (which could not be installed per specs).
Thang is, you run that there metal 'chain' through these here little ferrules...
...and then yew gotta crimp these here little ferrules shut with a good slam of the hammer, if'n yew ain't got a special twenty-five dollar ferrule-crimping tool (which I ain't got).
Well, lemme tell ya what happens if'n yew lay that there ferrule, with the chain running through it, down on that cee-ment floor, and then bring yer hammer waaaay back so youse can give it a good whack to close it, but yew miss that there ferrule and give that good whack to yer very own finger.
Well, what happens is this: besides yew starting to talk like a hillbilly, yer little old finger gets kinder upset about all that there pressure bein' applied to it all a-sudden like that, and it just blows it's little top and starts to spewing a bunch a yer good ole all-American red blood all over the place, while yer little ole all-American heart starts to throbbing right there in the end of yer little ole finger.
And then yew cain't hardly talk, cuz yer jes so danged sur-prised, so yew wash yer little ole finger up and bandage yer little ole finger up, and then yew crawl inter yer little ole bed, and ya grab yer pillers and jes hang on while yer little ole body draws itself up into that there fetal po-sition, and yew let them big ole tears jes run down yer face while you gasp and choke.
And then yew start to thinkin' 'bout how doggone curful yew were with them power tewls yew been a usin' recent, and now yew done been brung low by a measly ole hammer, fer everlastin' goodness sake!
Okay, I'm done.
Had to get that out of my system.
Here is the finished closet-to-playspace conversion.
Looking directly through the open door, you can see how the ceiling slants down to 37".
Because I know kids love hiding places, I made a curtain to separate the back play space from the front art/reading space.
To make it easy for the little ones to slide them open and closed, I mounted the curtain panels on a tension rod with cafe-type rings.
Something painful happened just after I got the curtains installed: The first time I opened the door and saw all that orange and turquoise through a doorway set in a red wall, my eyes nearly started bleeding.
I had to stop everything (immediately) and repaint the little red accent wall in a more neutral color (found on another wall nearby).
To the right, immediately inside the door, is the forward-facing bookshelf (I altered Ana's plans to fit my shorter space).
To the left, just inside the doorway, is the new light and the fold-down art desk/chalkboard.
I keep playing with what gets set on top of the desk; I want to hang a picture above it, but I'm waiting for a child's drawing/masterpiece to frame.
I used screw-in cup hooks at the bottom of the desk to hold the little buckets of chalk, etc(purchased from the Target $1 bin for OSU reasons a couple of years ago, but never used).
I used a hook and eye latch at the side to keep the desk from falling open and bopping little ones on the head.
The beginnings of their art supplies are inside.
(Since this photo was taken, I have added a piece of square dowel across the front of the coloring book space, to keep the books from falling outward.)
The desk has a dowel in the space at the bottom to hold a roll of paper.
I rolled my own (freebie!) paper on a piece of PVC and slipped it over the dowel.
I want to sit down and draw something whenever I open this desk or look at this picture.
When the curtains are open, you can see the left portion of the back playspace.
The toyshelf, and the beginning of the little figurine shelf, are on the left-hand side.
I found the orange baskets on clearance at Hobby Lobby; they're great for the vintage wooden building blocks and like-new-with-tags Beanie Babies I found at the thrift store for cheap.
We put a lot of little things on "Sam's Shelf"; I love it, and may 'need' one in my studio).
On the right side of the back wall, we hung the wood 'semi-shelf' for Matchbox cars.
I found it at the local thrift store (yipee!) and spray painted it orange.
I added that Velcro strip to the bottom shelf so the kids could attach the 'racing ramp' I made from a leftover strip of flooring (with self-stick weather stripping attached to make the lanes).
It really works wonderfully; the cars go crashing into the corner where the slanted ceiling meets the floor.
I'm waiting anxiously for foam pool 'noodles' to appear in stores; I plan to buy and cut an orange one to fit into that junction as a bumper for the cars.
One of our shoots moved on and left behind a big orange bean bag chair, which found the perfect home in this space, too; though I imagine it will be tossed out the door occasionally, when the train track gets set up.
(Still lovin' Sam's Shelf. Holds so many wonderful little things.)
And last, but hardly least, we added to this space my most favoritest things of all...
How I wish I had made a video recording of these moments.
I had been telling Nik I was working on a surprise for them, and he was excited to learn that he could "open it" on Sunday afternoon.
He took the big things in pretty quickly and eagerly, but when he discovered Sam's Shelf, and the little knights and horses, he just stood there, gently touching one thing and then another and whispering over and over, "Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh."
It was priceless.
Baby Girl finally decided to come all the way in and see what was going on.
I think she'll be the one reading the books, and drawing and coloring at the desk.
(Isn't she beautiful?)
I think they tried everything out.
Nik raced the cars...
...and played with the clay.
Guess who was in that other chair, tee hee hee.
One of the things Nik seemed to like best was closing the curtain when I left and making me "knock" when I wanted to come back in.
He liked being king.
Won't it be grand when this little monkey can challenge his right to the throne?
Do you like the way I worked in this picture of my adorable, widdle biddy Boss? I'll bet he is missing me right now. Yep.
I wonder if he will have brothers and sisters whose names will fill in these spaces.
I'm ready for them.