MILL STREET STUDIOS – an idea to renovations

Mill Street Studios is an exciting new dance space I opened on the 24th of January Mill Street, Goodna. Goodna is smack bang between Brisbane and Ipswich, and a few minutes walk from from the Goodna train station. Mill Street Studios came about very quickly in December last year. It wasn’t something I was planning to do, but in short, came about because:

1. I was at the right place at the right time.
2. I saw potential in the space, and
3. I had an existing connection with the local dance community.

This post is about renovating spaces at Mill Street Studios in late 2013.

Below: the white space at the end of renovations.

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With lots of help from family and friends, Mill Street Studios was renovated between December 2013 and January 2014.  It was important to re-brand the space and make it my own.

December 2013:

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Sanding the floors. The floors had been rebuit after the 2011 floods. But they were in need of a sanding and repairs.

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Determined to find a solution, it was suggested that I use an exterior paint. And it looked spectacular with the semi-sheen!

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There was just one problem: It didn’t dry! The paint remained tacky for over a week. Time was limited with a deadline to open the space in January.  But it was back to square one.

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Sanding the second time took a lot longer than the first time… because the floor was essentially still damp.  The dramas with the floor meant getting a different sort of exterior paint and starting from scratch – this time using a different brand of paint and using a low sheen exterior decking paint. I made sure I did thing properly – which meant starting at the edges of each panel of wood.

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Recruiting more help (thanks Fran & Will), once the floor was painted, we undercoated the walls. Hospital Grey undercoat wasn’t exactly inspiring. I couldn’t wait to see them painted black!

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And black it was!

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The last thing was the top coat on the floor.

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Simon Cook rigged my lights that had been sitting in storage.

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The White space before re-vampifications commenced (December 2013)

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A freshly painted floor:

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Like the black space, there were issues with the white space: the floor yellowed, and unfortunately it needed to be re-sanded and painted with a non-yellowing top coat. This was a massive set back, but we working long hours, had both spaces ready just in time for the launch.

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The checkered space:Before:

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After:
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While all the floor sanding, painting, re-sanding, re-painting was occurring, in my realisation that time was slipping behind, I needed to call in some additional help. My Mum and Dad are DIY renovating legends.  Here’s outside before they started work:

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My Dad and brother helped build the screen and Mum and Dad panted a lovely selection of plants.
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Reception area: before

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After:

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Upstairs: I think that upstairs was formerly used for storage.

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The floors were sanded and painted. Lights that were in storage were put to use.

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At about 5am on the 24th of January I finished painting the foyer floor, and hoped it would be dry in time for the launch that night.

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