I wish I had taken some before shots, but honestly I could hardly bear to look at it! I was using it as a "quick, open the door, shove it in, and close it again!" kind of storage space. Not very efficient. Definitely not beautiful. But then again, as I told myself, what can you do with a simple old shed - that once held llamas we think, who knows what else, then chickens when we moved in?
Ah, but a can of paint and a few days of effort was so worth it. I'm so pleased with the result! There's a freedom, I think, in trying to 'fix up' such a space - one that has a few rotten boards (fixable), many chicken feathers, nails everywhere, and yes, still a bit of chicken poo. With such a space, there's only so much one can do....and any little thing feels like such an improvement. After a lot of scrubbing and cleaning up, and some board repair, white paint slapped on everything, everywhere was definitely the way to go. And I did cut a hole in the side of the shed (hello, sawzall!) to put in a new (old) window for a bit more light and cross breeze. Then it was just a matter of getting out the things that could be better stored elsewhere (oh, those bee boxes were taking up so much space - much better stored in the barn), and making space for what I do want to do in here. Which is, dry my herbs and things, prepare the food I'm bringing in, store the tools I need and the extras that come in in the wintertime, pot plants in the spring, escape from the heat of the sun for a moment sometimes in the garden, and host a visitor of the little helper kind. And do so in a pleasant space that makes me feel good.
It's such a simple thing, really. And hardly anything grand. But oh, sitting down in there for a moment in the middle of spell of garden work...or maybe just hiding out there quietly by myself for a moment before dinner. Having space to move, and breathe, and work. It's going to be lovely, my little shed.