Library before + afters

Resurfacing+refinishing the stair @ MDHQ

Years of wear, carpet adhesive, and general grime made the stairway and front hall of the MDHQ seem anything but grand, but under all that we knew the beautiful original 1900s banister and lovely step detail might clean up ok. We won’t go into detail about the removal process for old hardened carpet adhesive, but it was most unpleasant. The simple resurfacing and repainting of our front hall and stairway created a grand entrance to the MDHQ.

Gallery Renovation @ MDHQ

As you probably know, MDHQ (the former Bad Idea) was originally a co-op, and thus, many of the rooms were divided to create additional private rooms. The large front room at MDHQ was initially broken into two odd, l-shaped rooms. The l-shaped rooms were cramped, cluttered with sleep lofts, and dark (since the windows in the rooms were chuked apart with the l-shaped partition.) We removed the partition, sanded and refinished the original 1900’s wide plank floor, and redecorated the room with salvaged materials. The gallery is envisioned as a flexible space that we can change and adapt to fit our needs, it’s first use will likely be a live-work gallery for visiting artists (more about our vision of a residency program to come.) We left the graffiti on the gallery’s front entrance door as a tribute to the former Bad Idea house.