Winter Greetings From Icy Cold Cheshire!

Lets start with a "howdy" and big apologies for the mammoth 5 month gap since my last post.

Winter for me is the best time of year, I love the idea of snow (we get a little here) and the cold air and being toasty, all wrapped up in the winter woollies!

Relocation

I’ve been a very busy girl over summer/autumn and done nothing but work, work and move house since July.

I left Lancashire for Cheshire at the end of August (only 3 miles down the road, I lived on the boundary of 4 counties), which was complete upheaval and I still haven’t finished moving!

New Boudoir Studio

As some of you will know, I closed on the 30th October to start and hopefully finish off my new studio. I have ONLY just finished off the mountain of Christmas orders but have done a good deal of work on the studio in the meantime.

Below are a few piccies of how it looked in March 2009.

We’ve got off to a great start; my mum has painted so much wall space it’s unbelievable.

The studio is very different to my current, it’s much larger with absolutely no interior walls to use for photographing against, only the exterior walls and thirteen windows!!! Because of this I decided to have interior a lounge created and an “X” for maximum wall space and an open plan feel in half of it.

The builders did this part of the renovation for me as it was such a huge project for myself and parents who work full time that it would have taken us months! However, I wish I had done it myself because it’s not without it’s problems. I think when you do something like this you want it perfect and will do your best to get that and put time, effort and much love into it. When you hire someone, it’s not always the same and I think I just picked the wrong people for the job.
Lets just say my walls aren’t the straightest and it’s taken me weeks of sanding, filling, straightening beams, plaining and more sanding. I rescued the hodgepodged job as much as possible and the double layers of insulating, backing paper have been applied to all surfaces ready for wallpapering.

A few more piccies of it when the frame was being built and boarded back in June 2009.

Lounge to be

X

More X

Another side of X

Destruction of the office

The floor has been sanded, it was a very tedious unlike the previous two rooms as this floor was covered in industrial floor paint and the wood is very hard so it was much tougher to sand.

The plan for this floor isn’t to restore it back to the natural wood because there is just too much paint on it, my aim is to smooth it off a little and then paint it piano black with a silver sparkly gloss finish which will catch the light when you walk.

The “X” has been fully wallpapered now and there are 5 sets in that area and a wardrobe/dressing room that will be full of retro and vintage props and lingerie. Finally all the collecting of goodies over the past year will finally be taken out of storage put on display and hung up for all to use.

I have started to put up the blinds for the thirteen windows; beautiful chunky black Venetian blinds and they cost a bomb! BUT I’ve run into trouble, one fell off and smashed due to the curvature of the windows. So I need to cut a shed load of wood wedges to secure them properly and consult the DIY dad when he gets a night off work.

The electrician has been in and done all he can until my false ceiling is being installed next Tuesday. I can’t wait, I wanted to have a gallery feel to my corridors with contemporary spot lights and beautiful images in classy black frames between the windows and the new ceiling is just going to finish it off perfectly.

What else has been going on… oh yes the sink! I have a lovely Victorian sink installed but I decided recently that it’s in the way and doesn’t look right anymore, so I have a mini kitchen area now at the back of my studio, looks very good and hopefully will be plumbed in within 2 weeks.

Once the sink/kitchen is sorted, blinds are up and the ceiling is installed I can get onto the final parts of decorating, painting the floor, installing the skirting board and architraving, making the fabric ceiling for the lounge and installing a nice old reclaimed wood floor in the lounge and styling room.

I hope to be done for January but I’ve been solo working on it for the past 2 weeks because all my helpers have been busy with their own work and lives, but I’m doing my best and will push on as fast as possible!

I will keep you updated as I go with possibly a few more photos although I don't want to spoil the surprise!!

On Another Note - Get well soon Kuku :o)