It's been a couple of months since I've blogged. But honestly I'm surprised I'm doing one even now. I've never been very disciplined at journaling. In college it was like pulling teeth for me to sit down and write something everyday. I guess for me, it's just soooo boring to retrace old thoughts. it just seems so stale and laborsome. But, anyway... these aren't moldy notions or rehashed rantings. These are just some poorly exposed images of my latest home/office project. "The Studio"... oooooh, that sounds creative and hip, doesn't it? Say it like a whisper... "Studio". Aaaah. Not an office... a "studio". Why? Oh, I don't know. I guess i just like to make fun of myself from time to time.
So without further ado; here are some new pics of... "the studio" *whisper with echo fx fade out*
Ok, "The Studio" is actually our walkout basement . It's basically one long room with a little cove, a bathroom, a laundry room, and a big utility closet. This image shows the editing workstation and one of my favorite decorative pieces--my bookcase with frames. I love the unfinished gallery look--got the idea from an empty frames motif that the brilliant designers at GCC did for the "My Life" campaign. I lurve it! Also notice the wall colors. I went with muted earth tones, tan and sage because I didn't have the budget to replace the dark burnt-orange carpet, but to our surprise these colors actually work ok together now. I have to point out the texture of the walls. The paint technique I used is actually called "suede" because the finished wall actually resembles a brushed suede effect. I bought the colors in a Ralph Lauren brand paint that actually has a fine silicone sand mixed in paint. The technique is a two step process where I finished the top coat with a four inch brush making thousands of overlapping X's. If you come over to visit, be sure to touch the walls, it actually feels like sand paper! Sorry to brag, but i'm very proud of it, and I love how it looks!
Oh, also check out my "fake" track lighting. It's an old crummy drop ceiling, so my lighting options are a little limited, but I finally found this four piece light fixture that's brushed chrome (Mac flavor : ) with retro bullet style lights. The ceiling is a little low and the lights catch in your eye a little at a couple of angles in the room, but it's not too bad, and unless you are 6'6", you won't have to duck.
Oh, that brown door is to the big utility closet--heater, water heater, pumps, storage, etc.
A closer view of the frames display. Kristin found the candle stand and the urn with grass--she's pretty good!
This is a view of the north side of the room across from the frames display and utility closet. That's our old 8' couch that i found a nice micro suede slip cover for. The big display case in the corner was built in and came with the house. I considered tearing it out, because it was old, stained and cumbersome. But instead I sanded it down and repainted it to match the rest of the trim and chair rail that i also painted. Right now you can see i have a tiny little tv sitting in there... that's temporary. In a couple of weeks i'm going to install a flat panel LCD HDTV on the wall next to this big corner display. Then that corner will be 100% decorative display only... not entertainment center. Oh, notice the small brushed chrome light fixture I installed in the top of the display. I had to modify it to hang upside down and run the cable neatly.
It's hard to see it in this picture, but the big brown ottoman is nearly a dead on match with the couch slip cover. We lucked out with that. they came from two different manufacturers. An added bonus is that ottoman has a lift up storage lid. Great for blankets, pillows, a bag of Oreos : )
The curtains are heavy cotton panels with loops. I found all the curtains, the rods with leather accents, and the matching draw-backs all at Target! All on clearance, in fact i didn't pay full price on any item in the entire basement! Except for the paint, that wasn't cheap, but I don't regret it.
Kristin put the big floor vase and the long decorative sticks together, and I absolutely love it! That big floor vase has been with our family since Kristin and I got married 10 years ago. A friend from college gave it to us as a wedding gift--i think it was Joani Crandle.
Eventually i'm going to sand and paint that end table--take it from honey oak, to chocolate brown like the rest of the trim in the room. I also have a couple of framed art pieces to hang on either side of the window. All in due time, i guess.
This is the future HDTV wall (between the decor and the brown display case). I've got my sights set on a Vizio 46" 1080p LCD. With a decent surround sound system and a PS3 with Blu Ray, it should make a nice little client monitor (and super bowl party system and family theater!) Looks like I'll have to re-aim my track light on that wall : )
Oh, to digress a little, in this picture you can really see the suede paint effect on the walls... Isn't that totally wicked! I must be easily impressed.
My edit desk. It's a mission style but finished in a dark mahogany. Very simple but big, heavy and sturdy. Check out my LCD monitor stand. It's a dual pneumatic arm from Ergotron. I think i paid $160 for it, and it's worth every penny in my opinion. My monitor floats whereever i put it. No knobs to adjust no screws to turn... just lightly push or pull it up down, in, out, side to side, whatever! I'm going to get a second one when i upgrade to a MacPro and new displays later this year. A great product, i highly recommend it!
And yup, there's my beautiful little MacBook Pro. And my BlueTooth Wacom tablet and my M-Audio USB Mobile-Pre XLR interface. That sweet little set up with my external drives has more media creation power than the half million dollar edit suite that I first learned in just 14 years ago (shout out to the fellas at Covenant Productions and the good old CMX Omni 500). And just think... we'll be making the move to 2k or 4k soon (beyond HD)! Wow, exciting times in the world of digital media.
This is a view of "the cove", a 6'x12' extra space that works perfectly as another workstation and a sound booth (very dead accoustics--great!).
In fact i just recorded my first voice over with a client in the new place yesterday (for Paper Depot)! Sounds fantastic back there!
The nice MXL studio mic was a gift from my way cool Father-in-law! Thanks Frank!
This is what we like to call "The Bistro" area. Stairs to the rest of the house in the background (obviously). And that brown door is to the laundry room.
This awesome little table was a scratch and dent on clearance at Target... retail was over $300, i bought it for $30!!! And Kristin bought a furniture pen and covered all the scratches. And it looks great! The two chairs were brand new without a scratch on them, but i got them on clearance too for only $35 for both.
It's hard to see in this shot, but the little square matte on the table was hand strung with small wooden beads. They almost look like coffee beans. I don't think Kristin likes the bowl decoration center piece. She keeps commenting to me that the balls don't match well enough or "there are too many red ones" etc. But she's being a good sport about it all. Our agreement is that i have "veto" power over all design and decorations in the basement, and she has veto power for the rest of the house.
A wider shot looking out the three panel sliding door to the walk-out brick patio. All these photos were taken at night, but you can see the green grass here because i had all the flood lights on in the backyard.
Note: I'm considering painting or staining the big wooden beam that separates the room. It's a rough hewn wood beam, and it's kind of a light honey color and it has paint spills and splatters from the previous folks who painted the walls and trim. Not a priority, I'll probably hold off.
To the left of the stairs is the "Art" corner. This is an area reserved for family art time (check out lauren's easel). So far, all three of us have used this area for painting--the circles art on the wall is one of mine actually. kristin painted two wall art pieces for the bathroom, and Lauren, well she has enough stuff to open a small gallery already.
Kristin and I have talked about possibly putting in a small kiln in the backyard so we can introduce Lauren to pottery. That might be a project for next year.
Entrance to the laundry room and to the downstairs bathroom. Next week i'm going to add a small tea cart and a esspresso and coffee maker against that wall. So when clients and guests come by, we'll have something to sip at the bistro table : )
Also need some sort of wall art on that wall... if you have any ideas, shoot me an email! I'm open to suggestions.
And finally, here is the downstairs bath. I put in new wainscoting, chair rail, paint, and a new vanity, sink, and mirror.
Those are Kristin's original paintings. Not bad!
We still have some stuff to do in here. Gonna put up some shelves, towl racks, and some sort of cabinet or hutch for towles, hair dryers, etc.
Kristin chose all the decorations in here and I think she did great! The bathtub was this robin egg blue, so we were kind of limited with what we could do with color schemes, but Kristin suggested the wainscoting and a "beach house" motif. The only other thing we want to do in here is change the light blue wall color above the wainscoting to a dark blue denim texture like this...
Maybe not so bright blue... a little less saturated and maybe a little darker--a soft cobalt with this denim effect would look very cool i think.
I love this little vanity! the faucet is a cool vintage design that fits the beach house theme ok. I didn't do too bad with the plumbing--taking out the old sink and puting in the new, but i had one problem... the "P-trap" fitting is too low for the new fitting by about two inches, so I fixed a temporary extension to it and smothered the seams with plumbers putty. It leaks a little when i run the water at full blast for very long... so I really need get the right P-trap and fittings soon.
Well that's all for now. I'll update images as we make more changes.
