I love my workshop! It’s about 200 square feet of awesome work space…it is messy more often than it is neat. 

When I host painting classes, I always have someone ask me what we use everything for. So, I thought I would share about my “workshop essentials.”

Clamps in every shape and size. There have been times when I’ve gotten to the store after my dad has spent a few hours here and there will be all manner of furniture lined up on the tables that have been glued and clamped. If its been a productive day, every single one will be in use!

I always keep a large container of Klean-strip on hand for stripping and staining wood. Plus, several cans of mineral spirits that I use to make wax glazes and wood stain in Dark Walnut and other rich colors. And, if I’m feeling in the mood to protect my skin, I have latex gloves on hand (ha ha…”on hand”…nice play on words). 

Wood glue and more wood glue! (And, some of Michelle Black’s gel medium so I can do my own image transfers on furniture. Shhh….don’t tell her I use it.)

Lots of latex junk paint for misc. painting projects that don’t require chalk paint. A paint sprayer for big jobs, an electric mixer that we use to mix milk paint, lots of Rustoleum spray paint for small jobs and empty paint cans. Tons of empty paint cans. I never ditch them! 

A hair dryer…I use it to crackel paint, melt wax and fix up my hair…yeah right…I don’t fix up my hair. 

Power tools! Drills, screwdrivers, electric sanders (I have a square one and a rotary one), hot glue gun, pneumatic staple gun and lots of screws! 

Mostenbergers Latex Remover. It is awesome to deep clean paint brushes and we use it to clean up paint off the wood floors when they start to get overly splattered. 

And, buckets for water. We use warm water and sanding blocks to distress and these come in handy daily! 

There you have it. My must-haves! Why is it so hard to keep workshops picked up and organized!?