Tattoo Parlour Reveal – Main Entrance and Shop Area

Decorating, DIY, Makeover

Finally we are at the end of the long road to finishing the main reception and shop area at Rocket Queen. All the furniture is in, the stock is displayed and we can now turn to finishing the other studios rooms. Scroll down to the bottom for the full before and after photos, quite a change!

The new Reception area has a desk for drawing out tattoo designs and artwork which we made from an old carcass as seen here:

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Very basic desk frame in foreground

I wrapped the frame in faux leather, and then applied ribbon to hide the staples to the sides. We then applied the initials of the business in aged brass studs: To each side of the desk are display cabinets which show some items for sale of natural skulls, metal ones and metal stag heads.

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Looking across the room is the main seating area. The colours are meant to be pinging and vibrant, and the more they clash the better. The large mirror can be used for clients to inspect their latest body art, and it also helps bounces light back around the room.

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Behind the sofa is a collection of old pinball machine parts hung on the wall to create a great, bright and colourful display. The coffee table is also made from a pinball machine top, with new legs added to make it horizontal as they are usually set on a slope. The end section will be used to hold magazines.

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Over in the shop section we have used glass and metal shelving and a vintage shop fitting display cabinet to display the stock.

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The items we are selling in the shop range from taxidermy to oddities to antiques. This is a bit of a home-made passion, and we are learning some taxidermy techniques as we go…

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Before and after:

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I will post the main tattoo studio room reveal very shortly….

Curio Cabinet Makeover

collecting, Makeover

I love curio cabinets. The Victorians excelled at collecting things, (which are now non-PC or probably extinct), on their Grand Tours around the world. My Great Great Uncle Bernard was one of these, and in the family we still have his amazing cabinets filled with butterflies and eggs that he collected voraciously. Nothing came in small measures, he would collect 50 perfect specimens of one type of butterfly rather than just one, plus the caterpillar of the insect as well. The smell when the cabinet is opened is overwhelming of camphor still, and when I was a little girl I would spend hours inhaling the smell and coveting the butterflies. I have quite a few little odd bits such as fossils, animals and coins, and wanted to group them in some sort of display case together, following the Victorian cabinets which are so inspiring:

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My last post talked about buying at auction, and one of the items I purchased was a very cheap little oak wall storage box from, I think, an old power station/railway box. It is made of oak, and has the original sticker in the box. As it is plain oak, I decided to paint the exterior in a distressed grey/green effect using chalk paints. I left the interior oak as I wanted the items to stand out.

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Once it was dry, I hung it on the wall and popped in my little items; a skull, a pickled lizard, vintage smelling salts, fossils, coins and my grandfather’s lead toy soldiers. Here is the finished cabinet:

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