Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The Making of the Original LOOK NOOK, 2010

The sequence of these recently uncovered momentos reveal early progressions in the creation of the original Look Nook, a 60 square foot room with 12 foot ceilings, small orange door and ticket sales window. This third floor shop-nest budded and expanded from what was once solely an office with a closet, thanks to a little creative planning. Come see for yourself!

The small room in the back of the office with its own door out to the hall turned out to be the perfect place to store/house an imagined space.
pre look nookpre look nook

This mural was painted using old paint (the trees are ralph lauren suede clay paint which has a beautiful feel like a real trunk!) and a projector. After painting trees like this with "training wheels" (projector) it becomes easy to do it free hand, or free arm! All four of the walls, 240 square feet not including doorways, is covered in this lifesize pattern.
LOOK! 072

The pegboard was conveniently left behind in the room by the previous owner. Left on the big wall of perfect purportions to a pooling effect, it was cut down to better distribute visual weight, making the room feel bigger. Each set of pegboard is sided with lengths of pine to hold it off the wall for the hooks to go in.
LOOK! 081

A certain helper assisted in carrying out these plans of extreme measure. To install hooks that bear weight into a drop ceiling with standardly distanced studs, we hung a special structure of 2x4s into the studs and then dropped our screweyes from it along the border of the room. Results prove success for the weightbearing clothes perches.
LOOK! 088

Lastly but most importantly, the floor. Seeing this ugly carpet now makes eyes cringe; But at the time, not seeing it full of sawdust and piles of tools felt like the beginning of spring. This roll of astro turf, most affordable carpet available, couldn't have been more perfect!
LOOK! 091

And sure enough! Spring came :)
LOOK! 093

Visit Madam Chino's LOOK NOOK~!
Handmade, Vintage, Fabrics, Supply
Saturdays Only! 12pm-6pm
100A East Pleasant Street
3rd Flr, MKE Fortress Building
Brewers Hill, MKE WI 53212