Well, who would have thought in 2020 we would see one of the toughest things our world has ever faced with a pandemic spreading far and wide across our planet?! I sit here in our cottage and my mind often wonders to what we were up to this time last year. Normally we would be massively busy spreading our time between weekly trips to France to source more stock, back home in the UK selling at fairs and then also working on our online shop too. Our feet would not touch the ground at this time of year and we love it that way.
Now we are in ‘lockdown’, forced to stay at home. Visits out limited to gather essentials only. It’s a weird contrast for us and something we are working on getting used to. Our three cats keep giving us strange looks as if we’re invading their space! They are all used to us disappearing for days at a time and enjoying the house all to themselves. Now they have to share their space, all of the time, with us. It’s a strange existence and I really miss our trips to France especially. They offered a little bit of escapism for us both and we would often up and leave for the Eurotunnel at the drop of a hat. Now we are told to remain at home and I feel a little like a naughty child who has been grounded. I know its for our own safety and of course it’s more important to keep ourselves and those around us free from this horrible virus. We must all do our part.
I don’t know about you though, i’m not good with too much time to spare. I need to keep busy. Its the busy days that make me appreciate the quiet days but too many quiet days and my mind goes into overdrive. So I decided to tackle a job which i’ve had in mind to do for a long time. 4-5 years ago we bought a small shed, second hand from some neighbours of ours who had moved away and were looking to sell it on. When we picked it up, it was in its original wood stained colour. We had not long moved into our little cottage so back then the garden had all been set to grass with just a couple of smallish fruit trees. We set it up and made a quick decision on paint colour and gave it rushed revamp. It was to become my first storage space for my little business. The place I took photos and displayed my newly found treasures. It did the job for several years and as the garden developed it was moved several times.
I soon outgrew my little space and we ended up having a 25ft shed built for us by a neighbour and my once treasured shed became a storage shed full of things we hadn’t space for. Every time my eyes caught sight of the windows and all the boxes and rubbish stuffed inside, it made me a little sad. I never wanted it to become a dumping ground. I had planned for it to be my little studio but at that point my new big shed was giving me enough room in there to do everything I needed. Not any more though! It’s primarily become storage and now offers little space for me to be creative, so my thoughts turned to giving a good old makeover to my little shed.
I set about emptying it (no easy task) and then looked through my stash of paints. We decided from the outset that we would use what we already had in the way of paints as we didn’t want to venture out unnecessarily. We used a simple unbranded eggshell paint for the inside and Cuprinol White Daisy for the outside. If i’m honest (and i’ve had a few messages about what we’ve used) I wouldn’t recommend the Cuprinol. It seemed to require numerous coats, so many, I actually lost count!
I did use a simple primer on the inside first of all. When we first painted it a few years ago I hadn’t painted the ceiling. A job I meant to do but never got round to it. The stain on the wood was pretty strong so it also needed a good couple of coats of egg shell paint to stop any bleed through. Thankfully the weather was beautiful during our project so drying time was fairly quick. The hardest part was the ceiling. Probably due to it still having it’s original exposed wood. I may decide to give it another 1-2 coats in the future but for now it’s fine.
The floor was the last to be completed and the most rewarding. It really lifted the inside of the shed and desperately needed a fresh coat of paint. The floor was the easiest part of the whole shed, I think because partly I could finally see it all coming together and I was loving the over all result of its makeover. I ran up little curtain for the back window out of an old French monogrammed sheet. It doesn’t block out the light but just gives a little bit privacy and security. It’s hung on an old branch we picked up in the nearby woods on one of our daily walks and i’m so pleased with it. All in all it probably took about two weeks from start to finish but without doubt was worth the time and effort. For those of you who follow me one Instagram, you will have no doubt followed my journey.
I’m so looking forward to using my new studio to display and picture my French treasures. I think it will become a place of sanctuary amounts these uncertain times.
Stay safe everyone!
Lizzie xxx
