There was a shed......

A shed with aspirations above it's station in life. This shed, in my wild dreams would become a craft studio, a wondrous warm and cozy place. A vision of planned loveliness that would be seen on thousands of Pinterest boards and where creativity would flow and beauty would be created...

This was the dream

The reality turned out to be a shed that would need £££££££££££££££££££ thrown at it to make it habitable. Reality slowly sank in, reinforced by my incredulous son who gave me a brutal reality check. 'Are you finally crazy Mum' he spluttered 'how will you keep it warm? The door doesn't fit, there are gaps around the windows.....there are patches of damp on the walls, you would probably get mould on all your stuff, as well as families of mice'

Mice? I looked nervously around. Hmm, a few things looked a bit chewed. In the photo above, the carpet looks quite respectable. Believe me, it's only fit for the dump..Secretly I began to agree with my son - although I was reluctant to admit it. (In my experience, children, even when they are grown, can be quite insufferable when they can prove their mother is wrong about something!) I had visions of sitting shivering in the winter, a couple of hot water bottles strapped to my anatomy as I tried to keep warm. I know that the reality would be that I would secretly migrate back into the nice warm house, carrying various bits and pieces with me each time, so that eventually, once again, we would be living in a giant craft room, with a place for nothing

So even though it looks really pretty from the outside, the shed is going to stay doing what it was presumably built for, a great place to store the garden furniture in winter, somewhere to dump the lawn mower, somewhere where the grandchildren will have fun building forts and playing shop or doing messy things where nobody will shout at them if they drop something on the carpet!

Luckily we have a spare room on the ground floor, and with a bit of juggling around with furniture, it is practically empty now, or will be soon, before a giant lorry of Ikea furniture arrives next week. It's a bit of an odd shape, tapering like a wedge, but should be practical enough when it's kitted out. It's just been painted in a restful neutral taupe colour and has a door so that nobody need see the horrible mess I make when I'm in full flow. It has heat, is just across from the kitchen...what more could I want. There is a lot more space than there was in the crafty cupboard in the old house, and  it is also gnome and mouse free, which is a bit of a bonus

So in the end, as seems to be a recurring theme in my life, all is well in the end, after a fair bit of drama along the way....

I'll be back tomorrow with the next episode of my quest to become the next Martha Stewart, bringing you the latest home decorating disaster news from here. See you then x