Space to create. Creative space.

I have been looking forward to having this space to craft, sew, draw, paint and design for many months, especially since Mark's desk moved upstairs after we finished the office renovation.

The recently-finished, over-sized bulletin board is the final addition, making the space complete. Mark constructed the frame for me from 1x2's; meticulously and skillfully routering and mitering the corners, and I painted it, then distressed it, and adhered the cork. I found an old, but unused roll of cork (8 feet x 2 feet, 1/8 inch thick) on kijiji for just 5 bucks! Total steal. I had planned to re-purpose some old bulletin boards and wine corks, but this was an easier solution.

It was a low-cost makeover, full of thrifted bargains, most notably the $50 blue behemoth of a desk (minus the $5 I got for my old desk). It's an old teacher's desk, and the extraordinarily capacious drawers can hold all of my paints and supplies, which in theory should help facilitate creativity, but even if I'm sometimes uninspired, at least the part of me that loves organization (which is about 90%) is happy to have everything neat and in one place.

And now I have room for my grandmother's lovely dressing table, which works beautifully as a sewing table.

The bird silhouettes on the wall are cut from free leftover scraps of adhesive vinyl from a sign shop—just go in and ask them for their scraps; they might look at you oddly at first, but then probably will be happy enough to give you their "garbage" (available in a fairly limited colour range: black, white, primaries, secondaries). You can buy adhesive vinyl from art supply stores, but why buy new, when perfectly good stuff is being thrown out elsewhere?

The branch cost was nil, just the time to whittle off the bark and varnish it. The clipboards are from Staples, I think about $5 each, with pretty paper glued on top. I think the curtains were the most expensive thing, the fabric was about $30 a metre, however the o-rings on the back (used to make the roman blinds) were found at the Great Glebe Garage sale for 10¢! That's also where I found the big "B" for a mere dollar, then I painted it blue to match the desk.