COTTAG3: vintage. dropcloth

Finally! FINALLY! My sunroom is done. For those of you who have been following this saga, I have a great sunroom that had become a storage room while we worked on other rooms in the house. Here's an embarrassing picture of the before:

You can read all about the before here. The plan was to turn this junk-filled room into a new project room for me. I wanted a place where I could spread out on a project table or on the floor, have a lots of storage for all of my supplies and tools yet still be a pretty place to sit with friends. After seeing inspiring pictures of calm rooms with beautiful neutral palettes, I decided that's the direction I wanted to go. After a few weeks, I changed my mind. The neutral palette just wasn't me. So, I started all over. The room has a neutral backdrop but I added color which is way more me. So, here is the new project room:

The room has pretty french doors as you enter. You can see the concrete floors covered with a Pottery Barn rug I got for a steal last year. You can read more about the floors here.

Some of these pictures may be a little dark because it was difficult to control the light in this bright room. You can see the work table I painted and talked about in any earlier post.

My cousin had given me the old window that hangs on the wall. I'm using it as a dry-erase memo board. On the table in the corner is an antique gold scale my father used in his jewelry business.

Here are the old drawers I had in the garage. I cleaned them up and just put a coat of sealer on them. I made labels for each drawer which right now are numbered. After I get them filled and organized, I'll change the numbers to words/labels so I'll know where everything is. Then, I'm sure some of the drawers will be open quite a bit since I'll be using the stuff in them but that's okay because the drawers are galvanized metal and will look so cool left open. That's my kind of storage.

Here's a close up of the dry erase memo old window.

This little old child's rocker sat in my parents' house as far back as I can remember. I think every kid in our whole extended family has sat in that rocker.

This old cedar closet was from my parents and I think my grandmother before that. It was red and had a fake crackle finish. I painted it with a pale grayish white. I added a an old chippy clip holder to one door and some junk on top.

I still need pillows for the bench next to the cedar closet but some lively quilts and throws add color right now.

Tip: I put petroleum jelly on the hardware of the cedar closet so paint wouldn't stick to it and I wouldn't have to tape it all to protect it. I'm just lazy that way. I didn't have to be careful and could paint right over everything. Once I was done, the paint peeled right off of the hardware. I actually left bits of paint on them because I liked the way it looked.

There is lots of storage in that cedar closet. I have 3 metal baskets on the top shelf and may add more later.

Here's some of the junk on top of the cedar closet. There's a child's red rocker, an old soft drink crate I had hanging in my room as a kid and a metal red arrow I got on clearance from Sundance Catalog.

I picked up this chippy clip at the Red Shed. It holds my inspiration photo.

I still want lots of pillow for the bench but I can take my time to find just the right ones. I do like the bench recovered in drop cloth.

I used another soft drink crate (in favorite color RED) to hold craft paints and glue. That idea is stolen straight from Funky Junk Interiors.

My pal, Jennie, gave me this wooden slotted storage piece. I can put office supplies, magazines, paper, camera, or just about anything else in those cubbies.

I love that this thing. It's just tons of cool storage. I put my new galvanized tote on top to store spray paints.

I like the old paper labels still stuck on the side.

This piece is really sturdy too. I could add cushions and it would be extra seating if needed.

Back around next to the entry is the fireplace. On the wall next to it is a metal baking rack. It can hold more supplies if needed.

On the mantel, I sat one of my favorite green shelves. I like the shape, color and the chipped worn finish of this shelf. In the future I can add decorative elements or perhaps a row of buckets or other containers to hold more supplies.

I just love this shelf.

Above the shelf is my printer's tray that I've had since I was a kid. You know all those little trinkets and mementos kids bring home that they want to keep? I kept mine in this printer's tray that hung on my wall in my bedroom. It was my mom's idea because even way back then, she was a junker with good taste. Now, I just need to fill this back up with some cool things.

Did I mention that I love this shelf?

Yep, another shot of that shelf.

Some of you saw the blue and white material I had placed under the glass on the project table. I replaced that with drop cloth and painted two red stripes on the drop cloth.

There's my awesome stool that I got here from a fellow blogger.

Yes, that drop cloth is a bit wrinkled but 1) they will work themselves out eventually and 2) it will get covered up with photos, notes, etc. that will go under the glass over time.

I added my big 2 ft. tall chippy white "G" I picked up at the local antique mall. There's also another jeweler's scale on top of the drawer unit.

I'm lovin' this room.

It's so me.

There is still so much more potential in this room. It has tons of storage and I still need to move in all of my supplies and tools. I want to add a few pillows and smaller details but overall it's done and I like it. Since I had almost everything, this room cost very little to do. I had almost all of the furniture and decor and almost all of the paint and supplies. So, here's the breakdown:

one gallon of paint for the table an cedar closet: $25.00
one piece of glass cut for the table: $30.00
bar stool with the 3: $30.00
huge galvanized tool tote: $20.00
large G: $30.00
drop cloth for recovering bench/put under glass on table: $10.00 (and there's a lot left)
new Macbook Pro computer: priceless

Total costs: $145.00 for the whole room. That's not bad, huh? This is one of my favorite rooms.

I completed the second little project for my new sunroom makeover (the first was doing the floors I guess). If you missed the before of my sunroom, you can see it here and then here. I purchased a new toy this weekend which influenced the project I chose to do first. I bought a new electric stapler! I was so sick of the manual one and all of it's problems so I bought a power stapler. (It's awesome)

So my first little project is to recover my bench that will be the primary seating in the sunroom. I purchased this many years ago. It was an iron bed in it's former life until some creative person took the footboard, cut it in half and attached it to the sides to create a seating bench. It's about the size of a loveseat so it's perfect for the sunroom.

Here is the ugly fabric that was on it. I loved that fabric about 9 years ago but now, not so much.

I have decided to recover it with dropcloth material. I want a neutral backdrop. I purchased my $10 dropcloth and washed/dried it to soften it up a bit. Here it is fresh from the dryer. I cut the size of material I would need.

As you can see, I am recovering over the old layers of material. I do that because it gives the seat some extra cushion...and because I'm lazy and don't want to remove the old material.