Continuing with the Busy Bank Holidays theme, visitors to Scruffies over the last few weeks might have noticed one or two small changes around the salon;
That’s right – paintbrushes & cleaning cloths at the ready we used the Spring Bank Holiday to have a good old Spring clean!
Fade To Grey...
Armed with paintbrushes, rollers and a mountain of bin bags & paper towels, we took on the challenge of cleaning down the walls, brushing back the cobwebs and giving the paintwork a much needed face-lift.
Igneous Grey now adorns the walls {despite the sheets….most everything else it seems!} with a fresh coat of white gloss on the woodwork it’s come up quite well. The paint is exterior grade emulsion too, so should help make it a little more resistant to the inevitable moisture & dust generated by a busy salon.
Trip The Light Fantastic...
To compliment the cleaner colour scheme, we wanted to brighten up the store further by giving the lighting an overhaul too – Andy kindly obliged by helping with rewiring whilst I put my freakish tallness to good use replacing the spotlight tracks, with new LED strip lights.
At only 20w each, after some rough napkin math – all four of the strips are equal to just one of the spotlight tracks in terms of energy used alone so that should make for quite a saving over the course of a year. With minimal heat output and an eyeball piercing 8600k (daylight) brightness, we’re really impressed with how well they work and how much more comfortable they make working in the salon.
The final touches were to shuffle Carrie’s workstation around towards the window (for improved natural light) and repurposing some of the display boards to hold the tools & equipment at a more helpful arms reach. Borrowing ideas from the ‘Golden Triangle principle’, everything Carrie uses on a regular basis should now be arranged in a trifactor (triangle) around her, making for a more efficient workspace and more importantly, reducing the strain of repetitive reaching & bending.
We dressed the wall with a lovely extra large mirror, gratefully salvaged from a garage and reconditioned the swing lamps with some new cabling and LED (8600k) daylight bulbs to match in with the ceiling strip lights.
Guaranteed A Hearty Reception...
Saving the best of the changes until last – we’re proud to unveil our new handcrafted reception desk, which takes pride of place in the entrance space marvellously!
Whilst I’d love to take all the credit for this monster piece of furniture (!) it rightly belongs to the fantastic work and talents of local tradesman Elliot, from his self-titled company E.H.D – elliottshomedesigns.com
Somehow he managed to interpret my sketches (in Powerpoint no less!) and the briefest of …errm ‘briefs’, and pull together an almost perfect framework in just a few short days, ready for delivery to our (then) new home. Even after our unfortunate last minute change of venues, he was just so annoyingly relaxed and calm about it all – taking it in his stride and helping both of us to make sure it could take centre stage in our Spring Clean.
Thank you Elliot – you’re passionate about reclaimed home furniture but you really helped create a smashing, practical workspace that is a great feature in our small salon and many visitors over the last few weeks have commented on how great it looks.
I mean obviously it looks nicer of course for the sanding and staining work that I did plus, well you know really it was technically my design..and so…{!shut up John!}
Joking aside much appreciated and if anyone is looking for a local craftsman to help with their next project we would both whole heartedly recommend Elliot.
In fact why not pop in and see him in his new workshop just 3 doors up from our own Salon in Mucklestone, if only for an excuse for a cheeky cuddle or two with his lovely new Beagle puppy Duke.
Not that Carrie’s needed an excuse to go over….she’s already working on her next project ideas and so I’m signing off to warn the bank!
Until next time.
John xx