The Sewing Studio Walls

Let's talk about my sewing studio, known in a previous lifetime as the Master Bedroom...

This room has been the most difficult to complete, for sure! We started off with a coat of primer (of course, and of course after the requisite cleaning/spackling/sanding/taping) and then put 2 coats of "Sea Mist" on the walls. Mr. W. doesn't know "Sea Mist" from nothin', he says it looks like pistachio ice cream.

Kathy came to visit and we spent some time figuring out What To Do for the decor - of course it couldn't just stay one color and boring. She got to go shopping with me for the supplies, but had to leave before I got much done in the room.

What I started with on the walls were dragonflies. I took a 3" rubber stamp and dipped it in opalescent white (barely white, lots of opal-ness) and randomly stamped the dragonflies over the top 2/3rds of the walls all around the room. They really turned out well. You can't even tell they're there, except when the light catches one and then it just 'appears' on the wall, all shimmery-like.

Then I took eight 2 foot squares of 1-1/2" styrofoam board (the kind that's used for insulation) and covered 4 each with light blue felt and cream felt. It was a challenge to figure out how to keep them on the wall (the many adhesives/velcro combinations kept separating from the plastic coating on the foam), but I finally figured it out. Now, on the wall that's just inside the door, I have a checkerboard of alternating blue and cream-colored squares, 3 squares by 3 squares (6'x6'). Now, if you think about it, 3 squares by 3 squares actually equals NINE squares, but I faked it and left the bottom right one out (didn't want to have to buy a whole 'nother sheet of foam just for one square!). In theory, it's so that I can access the outlet in that area. Now you know the REAL reason...

Why, you might ask, did I hang felt-covered foam on my wall? For a design board, of course! The felt is hairy enough so that pieces of fabric can stick to it and be easily moved around, and the foam is thick enough so that I can pin heavier combinations of fabrics (translation - quilt blocks and sections) up there. I use it a lot to get stuff out of the way, and when I'm working on something I can step back and see how it all goes together and if it looks okay when viewed as a whole.

Okay, back to the paint. There were so many variations I don't know what the original idea was, but I ended up beginning with a painted border that went round the room at the height of the bottom of the window sill. I started with blue tilted (on-point) squares approximately 12" apart, then I took yet another rubber stamp (a daisy this time) and stamped a white daisy in the center of each square. I then connected the squares (they really are diamonds by now) with a 1/2" blue stripe. Well, okay. It was *alright*, but nothing to dance about.

After 'living' in the room for about a month (hah! Like I could navigate through the tables and sewing machines and boxes and boxes and BOXES of stuff???) I realized that it was COLD. Cool green walls, light blue accent. Then it came to me - I NEED PURPLE! So, out comes the paint again, and I painted over the daisies with a purple square (not tilted this time). Hmph. Well. Purple's good. The design is far less than inspiring.

So, I'm wandering through WalMart and call Kathy. "What if I do [this]? Or how about [that]?" Fortunately, my dear friend talked me out of all of those high-effort-questionable-result ideas. That evening I went home and took out the primer and painted over the whole doomed border thing. After the primer dried (I had to do 2 coats because the purple was so dark), I repainted with the pistachio ice cream and called it GOOD.

Next: Rhododendrons and Dachshunds