Hello lovelies
First and foremost I want to invite you to our Grand Opening! Our Lauren Aston Designs brick and mortar shop will be opening its doors in Exeter, Devon on July 1st and we’d LOVE for you to come and celebrate with us.
Of course you’re welcome to join us anytime after then too (and we hope you do!… pllllease! haha) but if you want to come for the party we’ll be there with the bucks fizz and biscuits all day Saturday July 1st.
So what have we been up to?
Great question! Well we’ve been painting and building and scrubbing and spending all the money we have, but the biggest difference so far is that we have the world’s most beautiful floor! We went from blue carpet to herringbone vinyl and I could cry I love it so much.
It’s so funny popping in pictures of a before and after just like ‘Ta da’ …when the during was such hard work! We sweat and bled and pulled our muscles getting that blue bloody carpet off the floor. Every inch of it was stuck down to the concrete. It was such an accomplishment when we did it and then our wonderful flooring guy Chris came and latex’d it before laying each plank individually by hand into the masterpiece you see here. We are so so thrilled with it I can’t tell you. It lifts the whole space and feels so much more LAD.
The space pictured above is going to be our seating area. The armchairs are arriving this weekend and we can’t wait to pop them there (rug pending!) Once we’re open you can come and sit in this little space with a cup of tea or a glass of water and knit to your heart’s content surrounded by yarn.
Lets talk yarn storage
So, I’m going to be real with you. The worlds most beautiful floor doesn’t come cheap (and rightly so… it’s commercial quality and hand laid to perfection, that costs money) but that does mean that about 30% of our budget has already been spent. So when it came to creating the storage units I wanted we decided to do it in a cost effective way rather than get someone in to build them.
My ideal scenario was plywood cubbies where we could move the shelves horizontally and vertically to break up different yarn colours… however we already own 6 Ikea Kallax units (shown below) which are essentially the same thing just a white, ‘off the shelf’ version…so we decided that for now we would save some cash and use those on top of some lovely new cabinets. Then in a few years if we want to we can invest in a bespoke design for yarn display and storage. Here’s a little look at the cabinets, we’ll pop the kallax’s on top (and secure them to the wall) then pack them full of yarn…
How far off are you?
We’ve got a big moving day planned with a massive van soon to move the furniture over and I’ve got loads of furniture to build from scratch (I’m slightly dreading it so putting it off) but then it’s just a case of tarting it up and doing all the small touches, so I think we’re actually very much on track.
I think it’s going to be a tiring month ahead with loads of travelling up and down the motorway for me but I’m looking forward to being there and feeling productive. It’s really wonderful to see it coming along and because the LAD’s do so much work there between my visits it’s always a buzz to go and see their progress. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… I’m so lucky to have THE BEST team of amazing women working with me. Forever grateful for them.
The next big thing is signage, we’ve been working with a local company and I think we’re nearly there with it so that should be up within the next month which will be a real *moment*. I’ve done a quick mock up and we all voted on our favourite colour combos, naturally there was a 3 way tie because that’s helpful so I just went with the one I like best…
Can we have a glance upstairs?
Oh go on then, because I like you so much 😉
Upstairs we have a lovely big space for stock which is the main reason we’ve moved in the first place! We also have our staff room/studio a toilet and a small kitchenette. In my last blog I showed you my vision for the Studio in the form of a moodboard. I’m pleased to tell you that it’s all coming together beautifully! We’ve had a few small changes (things like the table and chairs – the table I originally found was too big for the space and we found some chairs we thought would be more comfortable.)
We’ve finished all the painting now and the sofa is on order. We’ve decided to have the carpet changed which we were going to avoid to keep costs down but it just distracts sooo much from the beautiful colours in there that I think it’ll be a lot easier on the eye.
Once we’re in properly I’ll do a full update for you with before and afters but for now here’s a glance…
So that’s where we’re up to so far!
I hope you love it enough to come see it for yourself. It’s been so much fun decorating it and we can’t wait to welcome you in! If you have any questions please do get in touch, we love to hear from you.
Take care pals,
