studio redo, phase 1 & how to entertain a toddler for hours

I'm thrilled to show you how my studio is coming together, piece by piece. First of all, I am absolutely in. love. with this room. I knew as soon as we looked at the house that this room would be the perfect space for me. The giant window is exactly what I'd always imagined & wanted for a studio, and it has tall ceilings and plenty of space. Up until this week, it's been a completely unorganized disaster, and I've been getting antsy to really put the space to use. I've finished what I'm going to call "phase one" of my studio redo, and that's to cover the chocolate paint below the chair rail with chalkboard paint.

For a long time, I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with the walls in here because
a) there's a friggin chair rail right in the middle of the wall, which won't come off easily, and
b) the ceiling isn't WHITE, it's the same flesh-tone as the walls above the chair rail, so I couldn't paint the walls crisp white like I originally wanted, because I'm not going to paint the ceiling.

Here's the before shots, courtesy of the MLS listing...

I decided to embrace the chair rail and just keep it. I tossed different color ideas around until chalkboard paint hit me. Little man LOVES to be in the studio with me while I'm working, and painting the perimeter of the room which is at his height in chalkboard paint would not only look totally awesome, but give him something to do AND turn this into a space where we can both create and make messes freely. Everyone has told me how messy chalkboard walls can be, but in this case - it's an art studio - so there you go.

Of course, once I fell in love with the idea I had to make it happen immediately. So I picked up a couple quarts of chalkboard paint from Lowe's (it doesn't come in gallons!?!) and luckily, it just took a TAD over one quart to do the entire room, two coats. I began painting around 10 pm Monday night. While the paint stick stood up in the can like a spoon in a DQ blizzard, it went on the walls surprisingly thin. I hate it when I have to do two coats of paint and this rarely happens because I'm a total painting ninja, but this case would be my exception. The back of the can told me to wait 24 HOURS before use (drawing) or recoat. Umm....

So I gave it an hour and didn't have any problems. We did however wait a full 24 hours to draw on it.

I was afraid I wouldn't have enough paint with my two quarts to complete two coats, but I did. I only took a smidge of the second quart to finish up a little corner. Now I have plenty for touch ups and other future projects.

Also, I had no idea drawing on the walls with chalk would keep a 19-month old busy for HOURS. Score one for mom.

Even though all that's done in here is chalkboard paint, I did begin to move some half-emptied boxes out of the room and kind of clean up a bit, as well as move furniture around into its permanent location. So the transformation has begun, and I can't wait to show you phase two, which will be painting the upper part of the wall a nice ivory. I think it will brighten up the room quite a bit!

Thanks for joining me on my studio transformation! And yes, I'm working on more than one room at a time. Gotta keep it real, folks.