We’ve been settling into our new shop for just about three weeks now, and I thought it was high time I post an update about what’s going on in here! Interestingly enough, this post coincidences with the installation of our internet and telephone. (Feel free to give us a ring at 314-832-2288. We love hearing our donated vintage pink phone rattle! )
Down at 7413-15 S. Broadway, we are creating a small retail store, a workshop/studio, and storage for all our alley finds! Instead of giving you the layout of the whole place, I thought I would highlight some of the details I’m most excited about.
The first of which is German bells. Yes. German bells. If you don’t know what they are, they are a beautiful paper form that Ms. Samantha Lang (Perennial’s volunteer architect extraordinaire) learned to make in elementary school and still remembers how to fold. We want to drop the ceiling over our retail space, and decided to create an ocean of German bells folded from old maps to hang above our heads. Look out for a bell folding party later in February where you can help create this gorgeous ceiling.
Our space has four big windows, out of which we get to see folks walking, cyclist pedaling, trains rolling, and if you stand on your tip-toes the Mississippi flowing. It’s great! We also need a little bit of privacy though. So, we have been experimenting with paper grocery bags as a material for blinds! I’m loving how our test blind turned out. A few alterations, and we’ll be on to the big windows in no time. I’ll make sure to post a how-to for these blinds as we work on the next window!
T
he last thing that has me super excited about our shop is color and pattern. For the shop, we decided to build out our storage and work areas with all salvaged furniture. While this is an exciting challenge, we were a little worried the space might look like the alley threw up in it. Color to the rescue! Looking around at the items we already had we saw lots of sage green, aqua, and turquoise already here, and thought keeping the colors in our shop in the light green-blue spectrum would be beautiful. It also nicely complements the warm colors of all the wood in our space.
We have also been on the search for furniture items we are using in the build-out of our shop. I’ve traveled down alleys to find tables, to houses in West County to pick up dressers and armories, and old buildings in South City to salvage kitchen cabinets. Our materials are coming along, but we still need a few more things (pictured below: bookshelves, workbenches, and wood ladders, which don’t need to function). If you’ve got any of this stuff, we would love to repurpose it in our shop, so don’t hesitate to email me at jenny@perennialstl.org for a pick up.
I’ll be giving little ‘Shop Updates’ here in our notebook, so check back to see the progress… painting this weekend (ladder + projector? Check! Thanks for loaning ’em Mike + Michael.)
Space!
Jenny
