So it’s time to finish up the West Gallery space. I’ll show you some views of the space and thoughts about the design and colors. I’ll show you some of the fixtures I made that makes the space as flexible as possible.
First thing we have to do is take down the temporary wall! Plastic and cardboard kept the place halfway clean. All our displays are mainly glass – so dust was a major problem during renovation.
I installed several floor outlets. I didn’t want to use standard floor plates because they protrude up above floor level. I had brass plates fabricated by this guy. Craig Jackson – a great guy and a skilled machinist and wood turner. Right after this project he founded Easy Wood Tools a very large successful company.
In the front yellow gallery area I used the narrow size flooring for the baseboard. I cut the tongue off the side and bevel cut the top and stained the cut ends to match.
Here’s Francia relaxing in a Room & Board Roadster Chair. They no longer sell these, but we have two in the gallery and people (mainly men) love to sit in them while they wait for their partner to finish shopping. You can see I used white baseboard in the black gallery and the flooring in the yellow. the columns delineate the black and yellow walls.
This view shows you the elevation difference in the West Gallery space. The step risers are also made from the floor material, as well as the treads themselves.
This view is looking towards the East Gallery space. this central room has 8′ ceilings.Walls and ceiling are painted with an eggshell black latex enamel.
Here you can see the glass gallery opening to the right. All the white fixtures you see I made from #2 pine that was white washed with thinned latex paint and coated with Diamond Clear Varathane water base coatings.
The space for the glass gallery that was converted from bathrooms. The area works to give the otherwise open room a little mystery. People love to ‘discover’ this room. The display cases are usually dark until someone walks into this space. Motion sensor switches activate the lights.
There are several old display cases that my brother refinished for this space. They add some warmth and character to the more modern glass displays. I built all of the glass displays from standard tempered ‘binning’ glass – usually used in clothing store displays. The bases are pine and plywood with the same white washed finish. They are easy to move to change the look of the gallery.
This is another 8 foot case with Roadster chair companion. I used a Walker hanging system to hang all of the art. Easy to reposition and no holes in the walls.
There are also several antique counter cases as well. I built custom tables to fit each of these. Simple square legged tables with pine tops. The glass display behind is where the basement stairs are located. Instead of boxing the whole wall area in, I made the bottom of the case high enough for the stair head room and enclosed the rest with the same 3/8″ glass doors and pivot hinges. Pine trim finishes the case design.
I made a dozen of these movable dividers. They are made from thin tongue and groove pine. They have hanging systems on each side for artwork. We move these things around all of the time. Behind is a restored candy case on it’s wood table.
A view looking into the West Gallery – before Christmas. As you walk into this space it draws you through to the front, warmer room. Frank Lloyd Wright used a lower ceiling height that opened into a larger volume space – this area is similar, going from an 8′ ceiling in the black gallery space into the yellow gallery with a ceiling height of 15′.
And a photo taken today. It’s easy to move everything to a different spot – or take it out all together. It’s fun when we have a new visitor in the gallery. Some don’t know what to think of this place – hopefully they enjoy being here as much as I have enjoyed building it.
I’ll post some more on the concrete floored East Gallery and the stained glass ceiling in my office in some future posts. Maybe by then I’ll be back to renovating the house this blog was created to celebrate. But first I have to get a new knee next week.
Stay safe.