Construction Complete! An Area for Dyeing Wool

A formerly neglected part of the basement has become a dyeing and storage space. Look for the "BEFORE" photo, below. You won't believe it!

This edition of Noodlings will be brief, because I have work to do! I'll post quickly in hopes that this story will help us all consider small spaces that seem to have NO POTENTIAL.

My nearby friends know about this project, which has had our basement (and my home studio) in a jumble since mid-July. But it shows that even a dingy, narrow storage room can be transformed. Now I need to move in and make it functional. Here's the story and the transformation so far.

[Who doesn't love before-and-after photos?]

Dyeing wool with Anita gave me the idea for my own dye space.

This idea germinated back in March, when I dyed wool with Anita White, my friend and mentor. I have been "helping" her whenever she expertly dyes the woolens I need for hooking or for teaching. This time, Anita walked away and allowed me to do a couple batches myself, and I was encouraged. I drove home from Anita's with a plan for a dark and ugly part of our basement, adjacent to my wool studio.

Before work started, we could barely imagine making this space useable.

Imagine this space full of cardboard boxes and that plastic shelving you see in garages. We stored our deck cushions here along with leftover upholstery fabric and other things we didn't want to look at. I'd been avoiding the job of cleaning it out, but with a purpose in mind, I got busy, so our handiman Greg could weigh in on my idea of a dye area.

We had something like 17 X 6 feet to work with. I showed Greg some photos of Anita's dyeing operation. At that point, we had no water access and no outlets. The space was lit by one dim bulb.

Lighting and paint worked wonders! That door at the end leads into the wool room.

We decided to make it bright and functional, but not "finished." Greg began with lighting, then the plumbing and electrical, some drywall work, and a LOT of white paint all the way to the rafters. We had no room for a swinging door, and besides, we needed ventilation, so he cut a doorway to my wool studio and made it a 30-inch cased opening. He painted the floor with porch paint and hooked up a stacking washer/dryer and a couple utility sinks. The stainless steel cabinet is 72 inches long--a good workspace.

But the feature that made my heart sing? Shelves! He installed deep wooden shelves at both ends of the space. These were in our initial plan. But on the long block wall opposite my work area, Greg also proposed a display shelf for many little framed rugs that had been piling up (I hope to make a grouping someday on my dining room wall). That reminded me of a long gripper strip that I'd seen in other women's studios, where I could change out the rugs from time to time. What a pleasure to put up some of my older pieces and enjoy them!

The wood shelves do add a little warmth to a very cool, white room.

The gripper strip, purchased from my friend Bob Christiansen, allows a block wall with no purpose to be useful after all. Greg's little shelf holds some small framed rugs, while the larger ones can be visible again and can change from time to time.

In hindsight, I think the key to this project is that we didn't get too ambitious or too fancy. Everything we did contributes to function.

Greg's work is done. Mine is underway. A bunch of my rugs are on display at the arts center, and my studio walls are very gappy! Nothing looks right. Everything is out of place and at a transition point--and it's up to me to figure out a new way to organize my wool, books, tools, supplies in the two spaces--the new one and the studio.

I'm going to spend a little time today sorting things out, and then I'll snap a few new progress photos to share.

Later in the day...

I spent a few hours--with help from Mike--getting some supplies and UFOs out of my main hooking area and onto the shelves. I've changed things since this shot and will continue changing them, I imagine.

An unintended benefit of the gripper strip: dispalying a UFO (unfinished object or project). This rug-in-progress was out of sight and out of mind for too long. Now, I see it every time I enter the new space and am motivated to stay with it. This, by the way, is part of a poem by the late Jane Kenyon, which I'm in the process of illustrating. When this rug makes it onto my frame, I'll hang another big UFO!

Shifting and organizing some things in the new space really took some clutter out of my home studio. After arranging things on the new shelves, it was not difficult to create order in this one. All of the chairs had been piled with wool that needed to be shelved. Now, you can actually SIT in the chairs. My rugs come back from the arts center at the end of the month, so things will feel more normal.

Here is my hooking chair in a still-messy-but-less-cluttered wool room!

Finished, but ever-changing!

Most important: I'm very grateful to Greg. Obviously, he is much more than a handiman. His vision and his work on this sad little space has turned it into something beyond my expectations.

This post has helped me noodle out my next steps, but even so, I'm a ways from dyeing. I need some equipment! Anita will visit in November for a two-day dyeing lesson--and I'll definitely post about that!

Thank you for reading my Noodlings today, friends, and remember that even a small, dingy space may have unrecognized potential for our favorite fiber art! Happy Hooking!