The transformation of the garage is nearing completion and the L7 Studio is coming together nicely. Unfortunately its not going to be as nice as this shot of 8443 Warner, but hay, someday right? So where are we and what have we had to do so far? Besides tons of trash, lots of craiglist sales, and multiple car loads of stuff to Goodwill, there is only one pile of trash left. Continue reading to find out what it has cost to get to were we are at now.

Painting the main wall
Once the area in front of the main shooting wall was cleared away and scrubbed down, there were just tons of holes in it from different shelves that had been installed over the years. Some spackle took care of the holes and I used some to smooth out the transitions between the drywall sheets as the drywall in the garage was pretty much slapped in, nowhere near the quality of the finish inside the house.

 Being unpainted drywall that was installed about 30 years ago, this was not going to be a single coat paint job. I had a full can of spray primer that I used first, the drywall pretty well sucked up the primer. During the cleaning I found a few gallons of an off-white latex, so two more coats of that and the wall is looking pretty solid. Along with the spackle, I also bough a new can of high gloss white that will be the final coat.

Costs so far
Since I had primer and basic painting supplies, I have so far only spent a total of $47 at the hardware store for the white paint, spackle, stir stick, putty knife. Considering that I have also made about $1,700 in selling old crap on craiglist, I am still well ahead of the game.

What’s left?
Without a truck to haul stuff to the dump, I am limited to what I can throw away in two trash bins and one recycle bin every week. In the picture here you can see one last pile of trash that is left, the vast majority will go into next week’s trash containers and there are a few old printers that have to be disposed of.

Once the final coat of off-white paint dries then I will give the wall and baseboard a coat of the high-gloss white. I am still debating about what to do with the floor. If you have any suggestions please post a comment here are in the L7 Foto Flickr Group.

Please come to the L7 Foto Flickr Group and show us pictures of your home studio,

If you are into Do-It-yourswelf projects, be sure and visit our friends over at DIYPhotography.net.

Read Building a Home Studio Part 3

Author: Kerry Garrison