My New Workshop Reveal – Fancy, Fun and Organized!

Well I finally made it – here is my finished brand new workshop reveal! This was a LONG time coming: My first post about moving my workshop out of my basement came out in MAY OF LAST YEAR. I lived in a constant state of digging through boxes, looking for one tool or another, and going absolutely bat shit crazy lol.

But it was worth it!

I was really able to take my time, brain storm, and build myself a workshop that I am so totally in love with!

It took a lot to get here, first I had to find a creative solution for protecting my modem and router, then I organized everything and painted out some bins, then I put up some cool wainscoting and then it was time to paint and protect the walls so I could actually get dirty in here, then I figured out the lighting and window treatments until now, finally, it was time to put the place back together!

First though, I have to show you guys the before and during pictures of what this room looked like when I started the renovation and finally got all the way to right now!

Before this was my grandparent’s old bedroom and you can see by the floor plan that I made it bigger.

My main home was built in 1915 and then they added the wrap around screened in porch in 1925. Over the years portions of the screened in porch were enclosed until I enclosed the last portion in my renovation in 2015.

My grandparents enclosed this room from screened in porch back in the late 1950s so they would have a bedroom on the main floor (before they were sleeping upstairs in what is now my master bedroom).

Because of the structure of everything I knew any of the rooms that were once screened in porch when I started renovating could have vaulted ceilings without affecting the structural integrity.

So, OF COURSE, I went for vaulted ceilings!!

Painting the ceilings in here black felt like a major risk and, honestly, I kinda held my breath about it. I half expected it to feel claustrophobic and small in here, but, ya kow what? The black literally just makes those ceilings disappear…. especially at night!

So excited!

Moving everything out of the basement and giving it a new home here meant that I had the opportunity to go through everything too and, not to mention, combine paints!

(I had FOUR cans of half empty black Rustoelum for goodness sake.)

The enormous closet in this room took care of all of my storage needs even with fitting my table saw and ladders in there too.

I had already built a basic rolling barn door in my basement so I brought it up stairs and now it covers half my closet at a time.

(Which is perfect for me as I don’t need this closet totally covered – this is my workshop and I’m not hiding it lol)

Find out more about my DIY floors in this room by clicking here.

Moving on to my favorite part of the room, my work bench! These two tables were actually a gift to me YEARS ago from my mom that I used for desks in my office but with the relocation of my office to my entry they were just too big for the space.

Fortunately, I had already painted them out in rustoleum so they’re tough enough for this job and, by some kind of miracle, they fit along the back wall like a glove!

My “tools I want on hand” was my biggest dilemma.

With my basement now empty I had literally three walls of barn and pallet wood to come down (so I can finish it off with sheet rock later) so I used a bunch of it here as wainscoting as well as a “backsplash” around my tables.

I hung my magnet strips for my screw drivers and wrenches. Then I hung all of my hammers too.

Under the tables I discovered I had far more storage than I could have hoped for. I had these two really nice file cabinets (on wheels none of the less!) that I was using with my desk in my office but in here they served a much more practical use for me!

Besides them I also fit my miter saw, air compressor and shop vac!

I know, I mentioned earlier on how this IS a workshop and I’m cool with not hiding it however, it just felt so much cleaner to me to get the underside of my tables covered.

I purchased a black shower curtain and used velcro to put it up.

(In the future I may take it further and replace the curtain with doors to make my tables look like built-ins but, for now, I’m really happy with this!)

Besides my magnet hangers for screw drivers etc. I did build some shelves for my chargers and hung up my drill and drivers. I absolutely LOVE my “charging station”. I just turn the power strip on and I’m in business. Its amazing!

The last piece was the sign I purchased off of amazon just for this space. The Last person who touched my tools is in the bottom drawer!

(My workshop reveal due, in part, from my new Keson four foot level an awesome Christmas present!)

This room is SO me!

The big artwork on the wall comes with a great story. The majority of my family are very artistic. Both of my uncles are painters, my aunt does mosaics, just about everyone throws pottery and we have several writers.

I went to one of my uncle’s art shows late in 2018. I hadn’t yet seen his new work and I absolutely fell in love with this print and another in its same theme. My mom bought the other one and I literally kicked myself for a month for not buying this one.

Sooooo…. Christmas rolled around and there it was. My mom called them and told them to hold it for her because she wanted to get it for me as a Christmas present.

When she went to pick it up my aunt and uncle wouldn’t let her pay for it and told her to tell me Merry Christmas. I have the sweetest family in the world.

I unwrapped it and was just speechless, not just because of how excited I was to have it, but also because it seemed like I had literally painted my workshop for this print.

It was just perfect.

I also had those three under the sea prints that we picked up years upon years ago in Mexico. It is spray paint art that we purchased on the street that also seemed to fit in here just fine.

I know its wonky, I know the color scheme is CRAZY but I love it in here. The real awesome thing though is one absolutely priceless truth: I know where everything is and I’ll never need to search for a tool again!

Some might disagree with me and say that I “downgraded” because I no longer have my entire basement as a workshop – I went from 500 square feet to less than 200 square feet! But there are SO many great things about this. NUMBER ONE: I have gone up and down those basement stairs enough times now that I never want to do it again lol.

Now, when I need a tool, its on my main floor! It is incredible! And now my basement can finally someday become what I always planned it to be: A rental suite!

I am absolutely THRILLED