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I can't help myself - I always seem to have a project going!!! I love to paint, antique shop and junk hunt and then re-purpose, design interior spaces and my forever love of genealogy. This past summer I wanted to just paint! And while that is what I mostly did, I also took on the project of designing and overseeing the creation of my own little studio space. LOVE IT! What fun!  

I love interior design, it's just something I've always done and don't plan to stop doing. I don't think I could stop if I tried and luckily for me, my husband has learned to like it too. He likes my doing it, within reason of course. ha! I continue to test those boundaries!

And truth be known, I really hadn't intended to jump back into any interior design project so soon after renovating our 1900 cottage in historic Arrow Rock.  That was a 12 month project, through a hard winter, and while I loved the experience and mostly all that came with it,  it was challenging at times to put it nicely. Some days you can't help but wish you hadn't gotten up that day!

And as wonderful as the cottage turned out, in my not-so-humble opinion, it had quenched my need to remodel for quite some time. Or so I thought! My plans for the rest of 2015 was to paint at leisure and spend the evenings sitting on the Victorian front porch and watching the world pass through our hamlet.  

BUT .... I needed space to paint. To really spread out and paint. This town is so inspiring to an artist and our little cottage home is so cute but it's exactly that -- little. I didn't have a space to call my own and I had left studio share behind in Kansas City, 2 hours away. Once again, my ever burning desire to remodel surfaced. My first instinct was to see if I could repair the little shed in the backyard that came with the house. Hmmmmm. It had been cute and I can only assume useable but upon closer inspection that idea was quickly eliminated. Too long ignored and not properly built to begin with, I was truthfully scared to set foot inside, at least not much past the door. Afraid I'd meet up with something that slithered or clawed back, it was evident it wasn't big enough to begin with or simply not worth salvaging. So down it came and a tiny house, a "little studio", close to that spot became my new project. 

With the memory of a full house redo still fresh I had a brilliant thought, let's go with a pre-made structure. Of course that had to be researched thoroughly and presented to the AR Board of Architectural Review. They passed my plans and I ordered my little building (Classic Buildings, Linn MO) in April. I wanted this project wrapped up quickly. It was spring and I wanted to be sure to have a place to use no later than the official start of summer.  Missed that deadline! As it turned out, on my birthday, August 10th, the interior was officially finished and I started moving in. New front steps soon followed but they will have to "cure" until next spring when they can be painted. Bruce and Rick did a fabulous job with the interior finish-out, Cody handled the electricity and  Juan the landscaping. It's true, it does take a village and I appreciate the contractors in this village for sure!  A new gate is expected to be installed today and signage should be complete by the holidays. 

THE LITTLE STUDIO AND GALLERY is now open. It will be open by appointment mostly in the late fall and winter months when our town reverts to a sleepy little spot. Once the season starts in the spring and throughout the summer it will be open on weekends and probably theater days. But selfishly speaking, and best of all, a now have a perfect haven.  If anyone has any questions about this tiny house building, feel free to contact me. I did not finish it out to stand alone as a functional house because I have a cottage just steps away. But it can serve as additional sleeping and entertaining space.  It's big enough for me and my family and what we need and I couldn't be happier.