My Beading Room

I haven't Written in a while because I've been spending my time on finishing up so many projects. One of those projects is my new beading room.

I had a beading room - a small room in the corner of the basement, where I could do my work and be as messy as I wanted. But I was tired of being in that small room all by myself, so I started looking for someplace closer to where my family likes to be that would become my new little beading spot. My house was built to have a formal living room and a family room. The TV was in the family room, and that room is open to the kitchen and dining area so that's were the family always is. The living room, which is right next to all that never got used. It also has a very large picture window which makes for good lighting while beading. It took a little convincing, but I got my husband to agree to let me have that room.

We ripped out the carpet and refinished the hardwood floors. My husband painted the walls metalic gold and the longest wall red. I installed 9 cabinets that hold all my beading supplies and shelves above that across the 20 foot long red wall. I found a very large dining room table and 4 chairs. I installed a chandelier on the ceiling and filled it with Ott light bulbs (true daylight bulbs - great for beading and for photographing my work).

The room is now multi-purpose. It is a library, a place for my kids to study and do homework, an extra dining area (came in handy for Christmas dinner) and most importantly my beading room / art studio. I can now have weekly gatherings for other beaders to come bead with me. I also plan to use the beading room for some Kintera Arts shows in the near future.

Below is a picture of how it all turned out. I plan to add bench under the window to fit along one side of the table. The border at the top of the room is old and will soon be removed. I also need to purchase some rugs to keep the beads from bouncing and rolling around when dropped on the floor. On the back wall you can see my new triloom. That's another project I've been working on - I'll blog about that one later. My cats make me put my beadwork away in the cabinets when I'm not working on it, which is good because this is the first room anyone sees when they walk into my house.