Our Renovation - From Shippon to Workshop

The old small cattle shed screamed out to be utilised as one of our #workshops. We decided it would be better suited to the #floristry and #willow side of Evans & Moose, already having a slate roof and thick stone walls meant any flowers stored in there would stay nice and cool. A simple #renovation for one of the first we tackled. Step one? Clear out all the rubbish!

The space had mainly been used as a wood and coal store by the previous owners so we needed to clear out all of that and remove the centre stall divider which would have separated the cows off when they came in for milking. So we moved all the wood and coal, got rid of three cars worth of rubbish and gave the walls a good scrub to remove any flaking paint. Next we filled in any holes in the floor and walls, there is a lovely little cubby hole which we decided to make a mini feature out of, but apart from that everything else was filled. The stones which make up the walls of this outbuilding are so beautifully irregular so the walls will never be smooth (which is fine by us, why get rid of so much character?!) so it got to a stage where we had to say 'done' and move on from the filling job!

Next up was painting, we decided to keep it white as it makes it lovely and bright and creates a nice clear colour background for any floral work. Certain colours can alter how some flowers look so white is a safe bet and eliminates any false colours. So, we picked a good masonry paint and set to work. We tried spraying the paint to save time, but once thinned slightly to be able to spray, the coverage was pretty poor on the stonework, so we went back to trusty brushes. I'm sure there's plenty of sprayable masonry paint out there but we had a budget to stick to! As always, green had to come into it somewhere, so we painted the roof trusses using Johnstone's #Garden Colours in 'Gentle Willow' which had great coverage and is a lovely shade when dry.

The focus then fell to an actual workspace... operation table was a go. Que another eyebrow raise at the current price of wood and a chance to reuse a couple of reclaimed doors we had. We'd kept a cross beam which had made up part of the cattle stalls thinking it was the perfect height to base the tables off. Then we measured the height we'd need for the front table legs, cut those, and attached them in the correct places on the doors. Then came the fun part... old oak doors are pretty heavy...who knew! So, through some pretty blue language and thoughts of anything to inspire strength, we lined up the back of the doors and screwed them into the beam that we'd left in place. En voilà, a custom table made from two reclaimed doors, which cost a fraction of the price when compared to buying wood in!

e added a slate window sill using one of the old roof tiles we had found when cleaning out the space and made sure to clear up the date which has been added in pebbles just under the eaves presumably when this area was built. Next was #storage spaces and running a plug socket through from the forge next door. There was already lights hooked up which was a bonus. We gave some old veg/apple crates a new lease of life, turning them into an area to store some vases and jars, and hung a door off of one of the old shepherd huts from our old house which is often used as a background in our photos... look at the patina on that! What a story it tells!

Really, that was all there was too the floral workshop (all there was to it, HA, be warned, no renovation is really an 'all there is to it situation'!), this section of the outbuilding was in pretty good nick so it was mainly aesthetic, but we still managed to create a workable, friendly space on a budget! If you've ordered any #flowers or wreaths from us, this is where the magic happens!

Hope you enjoyed your little sneak peak into the floral workshop at Evans & Moose!

#lifestyle #lifestyleblog #renovation #firsttimebuyers #farm #farmblog #smallbusiness