Since deciding in late November 2012 to move the workshop here, I have been steadily renovating the place myself, little by little, every day. This time I’m prioritizing the upstairs DIY room renovation, which will become the base for making my work, and finishing it in one push.
But I had become so absorbed in the renovation that I had not been able to do the work that mattered most—actually making things. So I suddenly changed the plan!! I decided to finish the upstairs room for making my work before any of the other spaces.
The earlier work on this room is also introduced in “DIY Self-Renovation: Room ④ — Walls, Floor, and Baseboards”.
DIY Room Renovation — The Workspace Is Complete!!
▼ At last, the room is finished and ready to use as a workspace.
DIY Room Renovation: Before and After
▼ Before | Before the renovation
▼ After | After the renovation
▼ Before | The room from another angle before renovation
▼ After | The room completed as a workspace
This Is the Heart of Hitotsuya（ひとつ屋） Natural Dyeing Workshop
This room has a small sink, as well as a gas supply and a ventilation fan. I also had a compact gas water heater and stove installed, so I can wash tools such as brushes and dye brushes here, and simmer dye materials to prepare dye baths.
Now I can use this as the main workshop space—the main workroom. In other words, this is the heart of Hitotsuya Natural Dyeing Workshop.
Still, doing the renovation myself—even when much of the work was simply painting—changed the room almost beyond recognition. It took plenty of time and effort, but I could keep costs down while shaping the space around the way we actually work. That is exactly what makes DIY room renovation so satisfying!
For painting interior walls, the paint manufacturer Sunday Paint’s “How to Paint Interior Walls” guide also explains the basic steps.
And with that, the room renovation is complete. At last, it feels like I can get back to the making that this place was meant for.
If you have any questions about Hitotsuya’s DIY projects or self-renovation, please feel free to contact us through “Contact”.