Before and After: Design Studio Renovation part II

The basement floor of our studio needed the most work out of the whole building. When we purchased this location, the building had been abandoned for over 14 years! We had broken windows and dead pigeons to deal with. Many others had passed on this location but we could see the potential it held. Also the price was right!

First order of business was having all of the utilities reconnected. There was no electrical service, gas meter, water meter or furnace. This actually played to our advantage because we were able to wire up the service we needed and update to more energy efficient appliances. We installed a high efficient furnace and hot water heater, replaced the toilets (there are 4 of them!) among several other things. Well, that was 3 years ago and we finally have been able to start making the "pretty" improvements! Last blog entry we showed you how we tacked the main studio space, this entry we approach the basement area.

BEFORE...

When we first moved in it was purely about function and getting things up and running fast. The asthetics came second. As mentioned in our last post, we moved our shipping and receiving area to the main floor so our ceramics operation could be moved down into the basement.

AFTER...

Painting both the floor and the walls really brightened up the space. In the first photo, you can see where our ceramics production takes place. The collapsible tables make it easy to adapt the space to suit our needs as they may change. Below to the left Janna makes a new batch of slip... to the right, Laurel is hard at work on the new and improved metals bench.