barriomulas.com - Beat Lab Complete

I'm all about home improvement. You guys know that. If I can build it myself, save a buck, and make it look good, than I'm down. Everything in my house has either been rehabilitated, remixed, or built by yours truly. From the stools at my bar to my bookshelves to my platform bed.

I have some company towards the end of the month so I decided to carry out a thorough clean-up of my house. In the process I've decided to revamp (again) room by room.

I started with my beat lab. The first thing that I acknowledged was my need for another desk. The recently remixed desk that I already had (plastered with a collage of cool clippings from magazines) was not enough to hold all of my beat making equipment. So I decided to take another. I found an old table that my grandmother had built many years ago and decided to work on it.

Here we go:

Starting at the corners. It's easier to get the corners out the way (you have to cut them specially and fold them around the sides once the top-side is dry.

Painted the legs a thick, dark black. Used two coats just to keep it sleek.

Liquid plastic. It actually seems to work better the older it is.

You can see the final result alongside the rest of the room's improvements:

My beloved inner-wall shelves.

The new table to the left; new home to my miniature mix board and my MIDI controller. Next pieces of equipment to invade its top: an MPC drumpad and a turntable (for sampling).

I found those two chairs like a year and a half ago on the side of the road in the rain. I sanded down the rusty metal legs, painted them black, cut wood to replace the rotten back and ass rests and added collage. The larger PC table was actually made afterwards to match them. You can also see a recent clock that I remixed, by making a collage face. The numbers say cool things like "IV", "7:00pm", and December. Also pictured are some of my beloved heroes: Rafael Cortijo, Ismael Rivera, and Hugo Chavez.

An old recliner that used to belong to one of my great grandparents. I picked up two yards to cheap clearance cloth at my local hobby shop and simply tossed and tucked. It used to be covered by that neat blanket that I had bought in Mexico two years ago. Pictured on the column is another hero, Simon Bolivar and Salvador Allende (added soon after). The photo/drawing on the top was made by my good friend Dino years ago.

I wanted to make the protruding sections of the wall carry a darker gray to stress its shape. I also added dark gray lines every few feet on the lighter gray walls to give it some dimension. Sort of make it looks like it's made of panels.