Creating My "She Shed"

A key element to access creativity, at least for me, is to have a separate space dedicated to that endeavor. In the past, I have tried to carve out a corner of the guest room, a closet or a space on the dining room table. It finally dawned on me that my wonderful back yard with its forest would be the ideal place for a studio, aka "she-shed!" The perfect inspiration for this was to of course go to Pinterest and start searching.

Next came the eternal compromise between budget and needs and wants. (Being a Realtor by profession, I of course run across this on a daily basis!) I settled on having an upgraded Tuff Shed that is 10 X 10. In order to make it more studio-like, I had the interior done with lap siding and installed a beautiful durable whitewashed wood-grained floor.

The best part of all was that I was able to obtain aged cedar planking for the back focal wall. This required a field trip to one of my favorite client's homes, a beautiful farm on 184 acres known as Spring Lakes Farm.

My client graciously agreed to let me use this amazing wood. I took my artist friend, Lyn with me to help pick out the right pieces. The next trip was when I brought my contractor to the site to pick up the wood.

What was totally unexpected that upon completion of the back wall, I took a look at it and realized that it reminded me of the place I spent many happy days a child when visiting my grandparents. They used to have a place in the High Sierras that was a a gold mine. (yes really!) Called the Primrose mine, it had a 7 bedroom bunkhouse that was used in the gold rush days to house the miners. It was an amazing place and I am truly lucky to have had the opportunity to explore and play in the stunning setting. The last photo in this slideshow is of the front of the bunkhouse. I named my studio "Primrose Studios" because of those childhood days and in memory of my grandfather. He actually had an antique store that was named "Primrose Path" where I developed my love of vintage and antique objects. I think he would be happy to know his spirit lives on in my work.