The first thing you need to know about transforming an abandoned pub into a museum is this: everything has to go.
I mean everything.

When I took over the keys to what had been the Junkyard, I realized that before I could build anything new, I had to strip away every trace of what it used to be.

The bar, the tables, the half-empty bottles, the tired decorations. All of it had to come out.

Some of those decorations were… interesting. Like the side panel of a blue Trabant that had been mounted on the wall as pub décor. It was a quirky touch for a bar, I’ll give them that, but it wasn’t part of my vision. So down it came, along with everything else.

But here’s where things got interesting. I didn’t just want an empty room. I wanted a world.

So even before the last pieces of bar equipment were hauled away, I made a decision: the walls had to be black. Deep, dramatic black.

My friends came to help, and we got to work. Some walls we painted. Others we covered with molton, a special fire-retardant textile used in theaters. Black molton, specifically. Rolling it out, cutting it to size, attaching it to the walls. It was messy, chaotic, and absolutely necessary.

The wooden floors were covered in paint splatters and dust. Ladders stood in corners. Work lights cast strange shadows. Standing there with my friends, looking at what we’d done, I had no idea what challenges were waiting ahead. No clue if this crazy idea would actually work.

But the space was empty now. Black walls. Clean slate.

Whatever came next, at least I’d started.