work space Archives - The Weekend Country Girl

It was all over for me when this building opened. We had just found out that the property across the street from our buds at the Rockin F was soon to be on the market. We took the side-by-side over to check it out.

The house… let’s just say I saw potential.

The barn was cool. I was thrilled with the locally milled wood flooring and the potential of turning it into a a gathering space. I also love that it has a pond out front.

The workshop was awesome. It wouldn’t work as a shop for me and my big projects but I saw it immediately as a guest house.

The current workshop is going be a 400 square foot guest house that is decorated with an industrial, mid century modern vibe. I have the coolest stuff saved up for this spot and it is going to be great. There will be a bathroom, small kitchenette space, and a queen sized Murphy bed. My goal is to have it functional by Christmas when the kids come home. tick, tick, tick.

Back to the garage/workshop…

The three bay work space made me swoon. Bay number 1 was full of an amazing classic car, but I saw a paint booth. Bay two was full of lawn equipment but I believe it will be the big tool space. Table saw, chop saw, drill press, table sander will go here.

The third bay will be my creative space. It has a wood burning stove, a a tool storage (complete with French door that will need to be changed so I don’t break it,) and room for me to work even in our wet winters/summers/springs. (It has been a super wet year.) We will be putting a door between the bays so that we can get between the spaces. We will be also putting in a door to the deck at the rear so we can have access to water and a cooler shaded space in the summer. The back deck is going to be our outdoor kitchen.

See the three sets of doors in the long metal building? That is the garage/workshop.

Who doesn’t love a wood burning stove in the workshop?

We are going to have a great space to work and create. Currently the third bay is a welding shop. Oh, how I wish I could weld.

That space is going to be where we can assemble things, touch up paint, and finish off a project. I am so excited to have a place where the sawdust and mess will be away from the finish work.

I know for most of you this doesn’t look like your dream space but it sure does for me. I cannot wait to have a dedicated space to work and create. I know that some of you are looking at those photos thinking… “What are they thinking?”, but we see this place as it will be for us, not as it is now.

We are blessed.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

Thank you for following along on our journey. I would love to hear from you.

Karen

I hear ALL the time from people that they would love to redo furniture or do other projects if only they had the space. I think that there is a perception that without the magical amount of space or equipment to take on projects. I say that is a bunch of hooey. Yes, hooey. We started doing projects in a home we did not own, without a garage, and borrowed tools.

Our work space is pretty great (but often very overcrowded) now, but that is a very recent change. Welcome to the Garagemahal.

(In case you are wondering it looks this cleaned up about once a year- when I get frustrated and drag everything out to reorganize. Right after that- it goes back to us stepping over projects that are in progress, furniture I have drug in, scrap wood that I cannot get rid of…)

This is how it looks a lot of the time. Sometimes it is even worse!

I would say that most of the bloggers I read started out with nothing more than their garage, the kitchen table, a porch, or some other small space. Their passion for their particular craft drove them to find the space to do what they love to do, not the other way around.

This is NOT how most craft rooms look. (Although if you want to build on for me like this, I won’t cry.) I do not have a dedicated craft space at my house. I have one closet jam packed with stuff.
Dream Craft Rooms

Here are a few of my friend’s craft spaces:

The dining room table is a popular spot. My friend owns the space above. She has three kids, two dogs, and a shift working husband. She cleaned up this space to take a picture. I am calling a foul here, but she paints some really fun pieces, and furniture, and sews, all from this space.

She painted my awesome chicken at that table.

My friend Kelly uses what space she can. For this project it was the top of a plastic tub.

Kelly has a baby and works on projects when she gets her to sleep. I haven’t
seen how this one turned out. She is a real deal artist and art teacher who is hanging out with her little one right now.

This is NOT how most workshops or woodworking shops look. (Once again, feel free to build one at my house, and drop off all those fancy tools we do not own while you are at it.)
Dream Workshops

Dee, at Deeconstructed uses her garage and basement.

Wood storage is the hardest thing for me to manage. I am jealous of how neat hers is. Right now I have a ton of cedar on the floor of the Garagemahal drying.

Dee painted the wall in her basement when she started her business.

She makes some pretty amazing things in this space. This is one of her winter projects.

Porch Bench

My recently retired friend, Margaret, turned old kitchen cabinets into this workshop island. (Yes, I am a little jealous of her set up.)

I found this post from Gail at My Repurposed Life about creating a backdrop, but the last part tells you about her work space. She is the person who I have used as inspiration for my mudroom bench and the headboard benches. She works outside and is shutting down her outside projects for winter in this post.

My Repurposed Life

I loved this picture from My Repurposed Life’s post because, just like the Garagemahal, there is always a riding lawn mower in the background! You can click on the photo to see the cool night stands she made from this piece.

Finally,
I hope I have hammered home the fact that you don’t need a space to be creative, but I promised you some solutions.

First, use vertical space. Second, make it portable. Here are two options that I will be making… once the list thins down a wee bit.

I want to build something like this rolling bad boy for the garage. It needs to be heavy weight enough to hold the chop saw, the router, and the sanders. I want industrial wheels on the bottom so that it can make the slope. We are always dragging them out to the porch and it would be great to have a rolling closet that uses vertical space, not horizontal for the tools.

http://www.familyhomeplans.com/miscpro_details.cfm?ProductNumber=DP-00560

Dee, at Deeconstructed, shared Redoux Interior’s idea with me and I will be making myself a rolling work bench. Soon. What a great idea.

Dining Table to Rolling Work Table

My third and final tip is not to let your work space or lack there of, convince you not to do creative things.

I would love to see where you work and your projects.

I am going to have a few projects coming up to share then I am going to add to this real life series talking about staging for photographs. (Spoiler alert… don’t believe everything you see in pictures.)

I hope you have a wonderful day.

Blessings,

Karen

Tag: work space

My Soon to be Workspace

Keeping it Real Series- What a DIYer’s Workspace Looks Like