Studio conversion blog part 2
So people have actually been emailing me about updates on the studio conversion I am doing.
Truth be owned I have not had much chance to work on it of late.
So I took the decision to take the whole of July off work to hit it hard and push it on a lot.
I have a few solo shows coming up and i really need the extra dedicated room to have several pieces on the go at one time, so I need to get this studio sorted out.
So after I got all the old ceiling down I was left with 76 sacks of rubble and wood to get rid of. Several days of carrying all that down two flights of stairs and out into a skip and it was cleared.
Then came about three weeks of finishing stripping the beams. There are some people who should be shot for their crimes against interior decorating. I took upto nine coates of paint off of those beatuiful wooden beams. In one place some idiot had actually put woodchip wallpaper painted light blue OVER the wooden beam…. !?!…
Anyway with a combination of stripping chemicals (Eco friendly water based ones I should point out), many dedicated hours with a handheld steel scraping blade and a few power tool I finally got pretty much all the paint off. I sanded and oiled the wood to stop any more dirt getting into the beams. I will re-oil and wax them again later on when the proper final decorating is done.
Next up was putting in all the insulation so I dont freeze during the winter.
We chose Thermafleece insulation as it is super eco friendly. Its basically massive slabs of felted wood direct from the hill farms. The off-cuts of sheeps wool that are not suitable for clothing are used to make this. So its like giving your roof a wooly jumper. Its great to work with. Cuts with scissors and no mask or gloves needed unlike the nastly fiber-glass stuff.
I cut the pieces to size and stapled them up to stop them falling out before I could get the boards up.
Leaving an air gap for ventilation. Though the nature of the wool should cut down the condensation problem this room has had in the past.
I managed to get all the insulation up in just over a day.. Nice.
I have been amasing scrummy furniture and stuff for the final studio whilst doing this work. I cant wait to get it all together. But a long way to go yet…