Farm Tour : Party Barn

Welcome to the Party Barn!
It's actually an old chicken coop that I think was built in the early 1920's. It's gone through a lot of changes over the years, been added on to several times. When we sold the milk cows we rented it out to another farmer to raise heifers but the hassles that those very naughty heifers presented weren't really worth the rental fee. I decided those bad girls needed to be evicted when they decided they liked my front yard as much as they liked the barn, even if they had to break through a few fences to get there.
I had the crazy idea to turn it into a play space. The Husband usually supports my wacky ideas when it comes to making improvements, especially if it involves more elbow grease than money. Papa Jack (The Husbands step-dad) helped a whole lot when we needed to enclose some areas and do some framing. I had been puttering out there but then I decided I wanted to throw my beloved a 50th birthday party, I kicked myself in the hiney and got serious about the project. The area that we're using for parties is where we used to store hay to feed our own heifers, we also had bull calf pens out there. Cleaning the space was a huge project. Lots of old junk, years and years of old hay in the pathways that had turned into something that resembled particle board, it was gross! Once we got all the junk and hay cleaned up I started to pressure wash, that went on for days. On to sanding and painting! Wahooo! I left the ceiling unpainted just because I like the look of the raw wood but everything else is clean and white, keepin' it simple.


Why oh why must blogger do this to me? My friend Jerrie says that "sideways happens, embrace it"...this is taking a lot of deep breathing, it still makes me a teensy bit cranky. Ok, that said. I put up these lights and lanterns this summer for a little progressive dinner party that we do with our foodie friends, liked it so much I left them up.

Every party needs great lighting. A couple of years ago I was joking with my family that we needed a disco ball for the Party Barn, that year my sister-in-law gave me this one for Christmas. I love it.

I built the bar out of an old cabinet that I got for $11.00 at the recycled building materials store, it was pretty beat up and painted dirty pink. I sanded like crazy, fixed some hinges and gave it a fresh coat of paint. I got the posts at another junk store for $12.00, they were really gouged up so I got busy with wood putty, more sanding...paint...TA DA!
The bar is made out of a plank from the old hayloft floor in the big barn. When we remodeled the big barn in the '80s, The Husband and his dad pulled up the old floor to provide better ventilation for the milk cows. They kept the planks and there are a few that I've used for projects. The planks are full of old nails and gouges but I got busy with my belt sander and I love how this old growth fir looks, I finished it with several coats of Varathane. I really wanted to see the wood grain. The trim on the plank is just some cheapo trim from Home Depot that I picked up for a few bucks.

Add a whole bunch of glassware from garage sales for the bar-back, set up some inexpensive shelving, crank up the tunes on those gigantic speakers circa 1975.

Presto Partio

Thanks for stopping by!