I loved just looking at my last shop update (a month ago!), and seeing how tidy the place still looked. I wrote about blinds, paint colors, and German bells. Those things seem pretty quaint now that we have been sawing apart furniture, building lofts, and making a mess!

We have been building out the fixtures we need for each little ‘zone’ of our shop. The zones are: retail-shop, workshop, tools + supplies storage, kitchenette, craft supplies storage, and meeting/crafting area. While we had a general idea of the furniture and fixtures we would need for each of these ‘zones’, we wanted to build everything from found materials. SO, we have had the joy of creatively improvising at every turn! We’re building based on the furniture and materials we have collected from alleys around the city, which have been varied and unique.

We made a storage shelf for our craft supplies out of a coffee table, futon frame, scrap wood, and old drawers. Our kitchenette came from salvaged cabinets, doors, a sewing table, and dresser drawers. Each day it’s a new project, and we have been getting some fun inspiration for new furniture to build and sell to support our organization.

So many people have come out to help us with our work, and we definitely want to send out a big THANK YOU to them! There have been a few Saturdays of cleaning, painting, and building, and I foresee a few more in March. Well, maybe more than a few. Why, you ask? Because Perennial will be having our first open house on Saturday March 31st! We want to have the shop pretty much complete by then, so stay tuned for more details on our opening party and when you can get a peek at our new digs.

While all those small projects I talked about in the last update seemed a little ‘small beans’, Ill admit, we have been folding German bells. In fact, we have folded close to 300 of them! We even had a German bell folding party (and plan to have another in a few weeks). So, if scrubbing, sawing, and drilling isn’t your thing, feel free to come help us fold beautiful maps! If you are interested in the tougher stuff, you can always email me at jenny@perennialstl.org to see about volunteer opportunities. There’s still a lot to build!

As the lovely owner of Rathbone Hardware told me today, “Nothing was built in a day.” Day-to-day, I try to keep this in mind and stay positive that this shop can be built in a month!

Gotta get back to painting!
Jenny