Ever since our first basement batch of soap I've been dreaming of a someday studio. I enjoy working from home so I was dreaming of a house in the country with an outbuilding as the soap making workshop. At first I was thinking small ... a shed studio I had seen during a garden tour my mom dragged me on as a girl. It was full of natural light and it was obvious the artist took loads of inspiration from her view of the garden . As the soap and floral businesses GREW and grew and took on employees I realized we would need something larger than a shed. We house hunted for a year and were just becoming discouraged when the perfect 1840s Farmhouse on 2 Acres with 2 story barn became available in Chelsea!! It was snowing the night we toured the house and there was a fire roaring in the wood-burning stove. The 2000 square foot barn was unfinished inside, a suitable blank slate for our studio ambitions. 2 acres was plenty of land for growing lavender and to my delight this home is only 2 minute drive from Downtown Chelsea and 8 minutes from the oh so important post office.
Me and my baby fresh from weeding the overgrown gardens standing in front of the future studio.
We purchased and moved in May 2016 and now 1 year later the barn has been completely renovated on the inside including plumbing, heating, cooling, insulation, drywall and a septic system all its own (oye!) The fabulous Thomason Brothers Carpentry team took on our project and whipped this 3 car garage into a fabulous upper lower floral design& soap shop.
Here is the lower level where custom cabinets were built using reclaimed barn wood from another Chelsea Area barn that had been deconstructed 40 years ago and stored. We got lucky asking the lumber yard for reclaimed wood 1 day after this old barn had been delivered to them!!
The French door and window over the sink were added to bring more natural light into the space. I'm geeked about the dishwasher which is custom panel ... do I maybe have the only reclaimed barn wood dishwasher in the world? I like to think so :)