My Little Corner of the World

It's been a long time since I've spent any time on my blog but I think it's time to catch up. I've been working on getting some ugly ceiling tile down forever.  It wasn't a suspended ceiling, the tiles were nailed to a framework of 1 x 3 pine boards that were nailed to the rafters. I spent many hours on top of a ladder with a hammer and crowbar prying loose the many many boards, not just in this little area but the whole downstairs.  I used some of them for the floor in my studio and still have a huge pile left. Unfortunately not enough to do the rest of the room so for now I'm stuck with the ugly blue gray commercial carpet which Lord knows I've even thought about painting or at least dyeing. Has anyone ever dyed carpet?

The blue cabinet is an old apothecary cabinet that now forms a wall between my studio area and the front door.  Our house was built in the twenties as a commercial building and the downstairs is completely open, one big room, so I've walled off this corner by the window for my painting area.

I also plastered the walls, which were grooved plywood paneling, with sheetrock compound and they turned out great. This old drawer used as a shelf is very special to me as it came out of my Dad's old workbench. I have three more of them and now that I see this photo I think I'll hang another one above this one. I wanted to keep it simple and uncluttered so I didn't put much in them. We'll see how long that lasts.

The apothecary cabinet is very special to me because it also came out of my Dad's workshop. I was a teenager when he got this and even then I fell in love with it.  Yes, it's missing four drawers but JD has promised to make replacements for me. It's from a drugstore in downtown that opened in 1878 and closed sometime around 1970 when the fixtures were auctioned off. My studio is small and I couldn't get back far enough to get a good picture of it.

It has 197 drawers. I quickly found out that you don't put anything in a drawer unless you label it.

Most of the drawers still have labels or writing on the side. This one held rolled sulfur (brimstone) at 30 cents a pound. I love love love the color and peeling paint. And there's room to hide everything out of sight.

I've always painted on a makeshift easel and even though now I could have a "real" easel, I don't see any reason to change. Here's how I hung the shelf on the ladder. First I screwed a two inch L shaped metal support bracket to the piece of wood.

I bent stiff wire to form two brackets like this.

They fit the ladder steps like this.

The metal brackets slip over the hook. the board rests against the ladder, and the whole thing is very secure. Believe me no one was more surprised than I was that this worked so well. The wire must be stiff enough to not bend with the weight of the shelf and what's on it.

I have one more baseboard to put in and the rest of the room will be finished. If I can get it in order I'd love to show you the rest. Linking to.... No Minimalist Here Open House Party My Romantic Home The Shabby Nest and...