I can’t believe it’s finally done. This room was by far my biggest project so far in our house. This was much larger and deeper, and involved many more DIY projects than even the master bathroom. And it has been “in progress” for years. But finally, and literally as of this morning when I finished painting the door, it is finished!
I was really hoping to clean out the garage before taking these “after” photos because the garage is full of stuff and can be seen through the back doors of the studio. But I decided that we had all waited too long to see this room finished, so I wasn’t willing to delay any longer. So kindly ignore the view through the rear doors. I hope to spend this afternoon and all day tomorrow cleaning that up so I can show everyone our finished driveway! But for now, let’s assume that the view from the back doors of the studio is beautiful and we’ll focus on what’s inside the room.
I have very few comments about this room. I did most of that in this last post where I went over the timeline of how this room came to be. So today, I’m just going to show you some before photos, and we’ll jump straight to the after photos and skip all the pictures in between.
Just as a reminder, my studio was originally the garage. So, standing at the front doors of the garage and looking out into the backyard, this was the view…
And today, that view looks like this…
Unfortunately, I didn’t take many photos of the garage when we bought the house, so the first photo I could find looking toward the front of the room (i.e. standing in the back and looking toward the front yard) was this one taken just as the transformation began, after removing the garage doors and while the concrete perimeter where the garage doors had been was being filled.
And today, that view looks like this…
I really regret not taking more before pictures. When we bought the house, the garage didn’t actually have drywall. The only thing you could see was the black tar paper and it felt very dark and dreary. This is a view of the corner that is now my office area of the studio.
So today, that area looks like this…
And of course, since it was a garage, the floor was level with the ground and there were steps up to the house.
And now, the floor has been raised to be at the same level as the rest of the house.
Again, this drywall was not there originally. We added that later and also removed the furnace that had huge ducts filling the space above the door leading into the house. But this is still a pretty good idea of what we start with.
And today, that wall in the room looks like this…
This is one of the few true “before” pictures I could find that actually doesn’t have drywall and still has the garage doors.
And that view looks like this today…
I can’t believe it’s finished! I still have some organizing to do inside the drawers and cabinets, and I’ll give you a look inside when I’m done. I have everything saved, but I’m still making some adjustments to how I want things to be arranged.
In the meantime, here are a few more photos of the finished room, presented without comment. Enjoy!
If you’re looking for any of the DIY projects that were included in this room (the cabinets, painted floor, desk, hanging tasting spoon light, laminate floor countertops, and more), you can find all of those projects. here.
I can’t even believe it’s done. This room has taken up most of my time and energy for the past year and I felt like I was stuck in Groundhog Day. But it’s done and I can move on. Next is the garage. Now that we have a driveway and I have a workshop, I need to clean out the garage so I can park a car there.
After that, I’ll start with the bedroom. I’ll start by installing the hardwood floor, staining and sealing it, and moving on to making a headboard, making curtains, and decorating that room. And after that, I’ll move on to the closet and laundry area. So some exciting things coming up! But honestly, I’m also likely to spend quite a bit of time over the next few days sitting in my study and enjoying the finished room. It’s such a colorful and happy space, and I can’t wait to spend time here being creative!
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 upper that my husband Matt and I purchased in 2013. Matt has MS and can’t do physical labor, so I do most of the work in the house alone. You can learn more about me here.
