Studio Makeover

I'm happy to break my long blog silence with some pictures of my newly renovated studio! The photography's not great. I need a new camera, but I'm not going to wait until I get one to share the pictures since I'm greatly pleased with my new space! I don't even want to post the before pictures. You'll just have to take my word for it that this looks MUCH better!

This needed to be a makeover on a budget. Thanks to lots of internet research that turned up great sales and D.I.Y. ideas from Pinterest, I kept the cost down. The draperies 75% off! We already had the paint. Keep reading for D.I.Y. ideas.

 

I'm not digging the lime green file boxes anymore. They're just cardboard file boxes I covered with fabric to hold music. I'll fix them soon.  The art above the piano is actually a super large photocopy of a Clementi manuscript. I glued it to black foam core. You can get extra large copies made at most office supply stores. The whole project cost less than $20. Here's a tutorial for how to do it, and here's a closer shot.

I'm really proud of how this wall came out. I sewed the table cloth to cover a folding table. The front panel lifts up, and I have plastic bins stored underneath. The bulletin board had an oak frame which I panted black. The bookshelf is actually particle board. I tried painting it via these instructions. The exterior of the shelves seems to be holding up well, but when I tried to put the inside shelves back in, they scraped the paint on the inside. So, Modge Podge came to the rescue! I decoupaged the inside of the unit with old sheet music - it's actually an ancient score of the opera Othello. I found it for 50 cents at the Salvation Army store. Kinda sad, eh? At least some music lover can know that their old score is now bringing new life to a room where children are learning to love music. I also used pages as the background on the bulletin board. The turquoise notebooks are covered with fabric, thanks to this tutorial. It was cheaper to buy some fabric than to buy all matching binders. Finally, the turquoise box on top of the book shelf is a tissue box that I covered fabric to be a check drop box.

The art wall above the sofa features photography by my friend Kay. You can find more of her work here. I fell in love with this study she did of an old Remington typewriter. Earlier, I had purchased (again from the Salvation Army) an old college typewriting textbook from the 1930s. I framed some of the pages to go with the photos. I suppose it seems a little strange to put a typewriter on the wall of a piano studio - I certainly don't want my students to sound like they're typing! But, my room combines my love of writing, old things, and music, so it seems perfectly appropriate to me.  

I'm feeling really excited to get started with my new teaching year! I hope your studios are shaping up, too.