I stripped the wallpaper out of the reception area of Zizziba House yesterday. I estimated it would take 3-4 hours; it took 6. What a tedious job! Whoever hung the wallpaper put it directly onto fresh drywall rather than priming it first. Boo. It makes the next job obvious - repairing a few spots and texturing all of it, then a coat of primer. All in good time.

Fortunately I brought my handy-dandy iPod docking stereo system that I got for Christmas from my Sweetie. I spent the afternoon listening to music and my favorite podcasts. It made the job enjoyable and the time flew.

I have to say the room looks better with every little step! Here’s a before and a couple of after shots.

Looking toward the front door. Isn’t that ric-rac border lovely? Or do you prefer the pink wallpaper? Notice the daylight.
Finished! Looking toward the front door again. Where did the daylight go?
Finished! Looking toward the hallway.

Today I’m doing fun work - making honey pots and butter keepers at the home studio.

I am a bit late getting this out, but Happy New Year anyway! 2011 looks to be an exciting year for Zizziba Studio as I create and transition into my new studio space and open a real, live gallery. We are working on the inside of the gallery space (aptly called Zizziba House) during the cold winter months. We spent the past couple of days removing some half walls in the main part of the house. I started on the demolition and Paul joined me yesterday to help with safely removing the electric outlets that were in the half walls and hauling the debris to the dump.

Here’s the room before I started:
Halfway through:
Paul working on the electrical stuff:
Finished!

Next I need to figure out what I am going to do with the walls. Of course that ugly wallpaper has to come down. I am considering wainscotting but I hear that makes a room look smaller and I don’t want that. I’ll probably go with a nice bright off-white color or maybe even a light beige; it’s a sunny room so will be able to stand a little bit of color. I know for sure that I’ll be replacing the floor trim and painting the trim around the windows, in a high-gloss white. I think next weekend will be devoted to removing wallpaper and painting.