Craft Room Update #3 - Framing The Walls

If you missed previous craft room updates, the links to all are at the bottom of this post.  

The walls are going up!  After a busy weekend we are back working on the craft room.   This time hubby stepped in to help.  We were hoping to frame the inside walls on Monday, but decided we needed to redo the stairs first. They were not attached properly in the first place (not our doing).  Ken had tied the stairs up before he started, but the stringer broke and down she came!

I'm sorry to say that a glass canning jar was killed in the making of this project.  Fortunately all human and animal life were spared.  Rest in peace Kerr.

I temporarily placed a little bench at the top of the stairs as a warning.  Maybe I should have hung a sign that read, "Watch the first step...it's a doosie!"

Ken used the original stair stringers as templates to cut new ones...so much easier than figuring them out!  He had them back up in a couple of hours. We reused the old treads for now.   In the future we will replace them and add risers too.

The long wall is framed!  I never thought of 2x4's as exciting until now.  With that wall up, it really is starting to take shape.

Here the view of the wall from the other end.  There was some real finagling with all that ductwork.  I hope we can frame that in, but we will have to see.

The new/old stairs.  Not pretty, but functional for now.  

On a sour note, I have been having trouble with my shoulder for the last 2-3 months.  It had gotten to the point that sometimes I couldn't reach up to wash my hair, or turn the steering wheel with my right arm.  I gritted my teeth and went to the my doctor, who sent me to an Orthopedic doctor.  Long story short, at the least I have a bad case of bursitus and at the worse I may have a torn rotator cuff.  I have to start therapy right away and have an MRI to determine just what is wrong.  I'm really praying it's just bursitus.  I can work around that.  If I had to have surgery, a lot of things would come to a stop for a while...and that would be worse than surgery for me!  Say a little prayer for me ok?

Basement Craft Room - Humble Beginnings
An Entertaining Sewing Center
Craft Room Dreaming
Craft Room Update #1 - Prepping the Walls
Craft Room Update #2 - White Walls
Craft Room Update #3 - Framing the Walls
Craft Room Update # 4 - The Floors

Spring Bird Cages

In Northern Michigan, spring comes late.  That's my excuse for not doing much spring decorating yet.  But Friday was sunny and warm.  I started seeds... which means it's spring to me.  In honor of this glorious occasion, I present my humble little birdcages that I've decorated for spring.

First they got a coat of Krylon hammered metal in silver.

Before

A peek through the closed top

To the larger birdcage, I added spanish moss, a dried butterfly (found dead last year), wooden eggs painted blue and speckled with brown paint from a toothbrush.  The butterfly was gently hot glued to a twig.  

The smaller birdcage holds a candle 

I have planted seeds and decorated my birdcages.  It is spring...bring. it. on!

I've joined these fabulous parties. Come party with me!

Features and Galvanized + Chalkboard = Storage

In between prepping and painting the basement walls and cabinet boards, I snuck in some more galvanizing and chalkboard painting.  More on that after the following:

I've had my nose to the fieldstone in my basement craft room lately, and have been remiss in thanking some lovely ladies who have featured my galvanized magazine rack, my old world tray, and my burlap and roses wreath.  I'd like to give a shout out to Rosemary at Villabarnes for featuring my Old World Tray. Rosemary's Old World finish inspired me to try something similar on my tray.  You need to visit her now.  Her creations are breathtaking.




These lovely ladies featured my Faux Galvanized Magazine Rack.  They have awesome parties every week.  Party on my friends!

Finally my Burlap and Roses Wreath was featured by these awesome bloggers.  I am so honored that anyone cares to read my posts, let alone feature them.  Thank you all from the bottom of my heart!

Back to galvanizing and chalkboard painting.  I'm going to need lots of storage in my new craft room "to be".  Sounds like I am marrying it...to have and to hold!  Anyway, I had some old tins and have been saving various containers, with the plan to paint or cover them somehow.

 I have other containers saved too, but these are the first up to get prettified.  Yes it's a word...in my world.

They all got a coat of brush-on primer in dark gray.  Tip:  Have a can of regular primer tinted with as much black as the container will allow.  I had a 5 gallon bucket tinted, but it will work on gallons too.

After that dries for a day or so, paint over it with black.  I used black acrylic paint on the tins and black chalk paint (homemade) on the breakfast drink containers.  For my homemade chalk paint on these I mixed 2 tsp of plaster of paris with a tablespoon of hot water to disolve, then added 1/2 cup of the black acrylic paint.

Finally I used the same galvanization technique that I used on my magazine rack on the tins.  Here's how it all turned out.

These tins are my favorite.  I have a some Christmas tins that I don't think will see another Christmas...or they will be seeing it incognito.  Muhahahaha!

This project has been featured at:

I've linked to these great parties.  Come join me there!