Moving into the new craft room

My new craft room in the loft is nearly ready to move into. It’s been a busy few weeks trying to fit the decorating in amongst having a week’s holiday and keeping my bead shop stocked.

I hadn’t done any wallpapering for about twenty years but fortunately, I hadn’t forgotten.

There is a lot of work in the ceiling. It looked a bit like a sauna when the matchboarding was first fitted. I wanted a distressed look ... which takes more doing than you might realise. All the nail holes had to be filled and sanded (I had a power tool for that bit so it went quite quick).a A coat of antique pine wood dye got rid of the new timber colour, then a single coat of watered down emulsion. To make it look like it had naturally weathered off, those layers were then h.a.n.d. sanded.  I couldn't use the power tool for that bit as I had to go slow and steady and stop when it looked right. At this point, I was beginning to wish we'd just plastered the lot as it would've been much quicker to just put two coats of emulsion on it but finally it was sealed with two coats of clear satin varnish and I'm delighted with it. All the work removed my fingerprints, for a fortnight my iPad refused to recognise me unless I put my passcode in!

The bannister is being fitted today by the joiner as I type. We’re having floor to ceiling spindles rather than a short one with a handrail on top, as you can see, the staircase has an integral handrail so doesn’t need another. The tall spindles will be a bit of a design feature as well as stopping anyone falling down the side of the stairwell.

The electrician is coming on Monday to fit light fittings, socket and a small heater.

,,u

The contents of the craft room have been collected from storage and are in boxes in the spare bedroom.

Some self-assembly storage shelving thingees are also arriving next week but there seems to be far more boxes than I remember ... I’m hoping it will all fit!