Last week kind of got away from me. Every time I’d try to get some work done on the studio, something else would need my attention. But Saturday and yesterday, I was able to focus and spend quite a bit of time getting some items check off of my studio to-do list. And I finally got all of the last details finished on the studio office area cabinets. To be clear, I still need to finish some electrical stuff. The sconces aren’t actually wired yet. But as far as the actual cabinets go, those are finished.
As a reminder, this is how the cabinets started out. These are IKEA Sektion cabinets, and I bought the Veddinge cabinet doors and drawer fronts.
As of last week, I had gotten quite a bit done. I added trim to the doors and drawer fronts, built a bridge between the two upper side cabinets, trimmed out the cabinets, installed sconces, built a countertop, and trimmed out the window.
But I still needed to add cabinet trim in the window area, make a decision on what to do with the wall around the window (keep it pink or paint it the wall color?), decide what to do with the backs of the cubbies (keep them pink or paint them a different color?), paint the window trim, and install all of the cabinet knobs and pulls.
I got all of that finished last night, and here is my final decision. I went ahead and painted the area around the window the wall color (Benjamin Moore Classic Gray), which I think looks fantastic, especially now that the small trim is installed where the cabinets meet the wall around the window. It has such a clean, finished look, and that small amount of wall actually being the wall color instead of pink really did a lot to visually open up that area. And then, because it was the only solution that made sense in my mind, I gold leafed the backs of the cubbies so that the pink and gold bridge made sense and flowed better with the pink and gold doors and drawer fronts. It just made sense in my mind, and now that I have things in the cubbies, the gold is nothing more than a subtle backdrop.
I know these seemed like such small decisions, but these little details really do make a huge difference in the finished product. So I’m glad I spent some time wrestling with them and coming up with a solution that I really do love. I’m so proud of how these cabinets turned out.
I still might decide to add a little decorative something to the countertop to bring some interest and color, but right now, I’m just enjoying the fact that the cabinets themselves are finished.
I do wish that I had remembered to put the flush ceiling light back up in the ceiling while I still had the scaffolding there, but I didn’t realize it was still hanging down until I was taking pictures this morning. So I’m still undecided as to whether or not the cubbies actually need tape lights.
With that ceiling light hanging down and pointing towards the cubbies, it kind of washes out those items up there and floods the cubbies with light. But once that light is back in place, I might decide that the cubbies really do need some tape lights. So I’ll make that decision when I’m finishing up the outlets, and after the ceiling lights are back in place.
I’m just so excited to have this huge project finished! And I love how it turned out. Already this morning, I’ve gone into the studio several times just so I could stand and stare at the cabinets for a bit. 😀
And now I’m on to the rest of the to-do list. I’m slowly but surely chipping away at that list and getting stuff DONE! I think I need to focus on getting all of the trim installed next. Of course, what I really want to do is the decorative stuff. That’s the fun stuff. But the trim really should be done first. Or should it? 😀 We’ll see.
Anyway, here’s what my to-do list looks like as of this morning. I had to add a couple of things to the list that I had left off, and I moved all of the “done” items to the bottom. But I’m getting them done!
- Install and paint baseboards;
- Install and paint door casings on two doors;
- Paint two doors;
- Paint bases on work tables;
- Paint desk and add two drawers;
- Finish wiring electrical outlets;
- Add lights to cubbies;
- Reupholster desk chair;
- Make pendant light;
- Frame and hang landscape design;
- Decorate long, blank wall;
- Clean and touchup paint on floor;
Paint wall around window;Gold leaf backs of cubbies;Finish trim on office area cabinets;Install window shade;Paint black parts of paint swatch cabinet white;Finish painting the ceiling and walls;Finish adjusting doors and drawers;Install drawer pulls and door knobs.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
