Over the last couple months I took on an interior design project, and now that it’s mostly done I’d like to show it off a little!
To give some context, I help run the family business, which is a dance hall called Sugar Swing. We recently moved in to a new venue, and our vision was to turn one of the rooms into a staff lounge. This was a big deal for us, because the previous place had just one tiny office crammed full of everyone’s stuff. It took a couple months to get this space up to snuff in between my other work. Thankfully I had some help from friends along the way. Now our instructors, organizers, and other staff have a place to crash!
The “before” picture:
This photo does not do justice to how crappy the room looked initially. Here it’s been halfway painted already. But it needed a lot of mudding first — so imagine the walls cracked and marked up.
And after! It’s not Pinterest-perfect, but a massive improvement. A little bare right now, but it’ll look more lived-in over time. The new paint colours are tan and grey, which is what we had leftover from our other renovations. A friend gathered some Pinterest images that showed this colour combination is doable — you get a cozy den sort of vibe. So that’s the look I aimed for throughout the process.
There are some tricks and features going on that helped keep the renos affordable and will hopefully keep it comfortable too. The concrete floor was gross and covered in stains, so it needed to be covered; floor paint was a really cost effective way to spruce it up. We trashed the flourescent lights and replaced them with cheap but nicer flushmount incandescents. And cubbies! One of our staff very kindly donated the Ikea shelves, which will really keep the space welcoming and people’s stuff from piling up.
Speaking of donations, a lot of people helped me make this space. Two different people gave us couches, and a very nice fellow helped my husband pick up and move them. A number of our staff/dancers helped with planning, mudding, and installing light fixtures. I couldn’t have done it without them.
Looking forward to having the giant corkboard populated with weird and wonderful paraphernalia. I’m also hoping to gather up some small art pieces over time — there’s a ledge that runs on three walls and is perfect for display. So far we just have one piece by Edmonton artist Jeffrey Dekker:
The building in this print is Edmonton’s Orange Hall, the tiny hall Sugar Swing first operated out of many years ago! It’s a shout-out to where it all started for us.