My craft room makeover
I have finally reached a point where I feel like my craft room revamp is done. Well, maybe not done…there will probably always be something else I want to do in here…but I DO feel as though it’s looking pretty good.
When I first started to fix things up in here, it was mainly from a feeling of necessity. I say “feeling” because, really, who needs a craft room? In fact, before I moved to this house a few years ago, I was running my little ornament business out of my bedroom. So believe me, just having a separate room to engage in all my crafty adventures has been a wonderful gift. Even if the room IS only 10 x 10. And windowless.
However, over the last couple of years, my increase in production has created the need for a lot more supplies and space than when I first began. And since I couldn’t figure out a way to make the room bigger, there was a definite need for some better organization. And that was the initial plan…to just re-organize everything. I never intended for it to become the huge project that it did.
Now, this, was once a workspace:
I don’t know how it got this bad.
Yes I do. Because at some point I started running out of places to put things, so those things ended up wherever there was even the slightest hint of open space. And this process just built up on itself until it had turned into a bona fide, 100% total disaster area. It got to a point where I was afraid to walk in. And just as afraid to walk out. For fear that I would be lassoed by a piece of ribbon and pulled back in, never to be heard from again.
Things that went into this room never made it back out. Like this old Budweiser glass…
There’s no more room in the Budweiser glass? There’s always my trusty red plastic cup. Which wasn’t really so trusty, because it would fall over every time I disrupted its delicate balance by adding or removing whatever I needed from it.
I do really like this desk/armoire thing. It’s really nice. The problem is, it took up half the room. Literally. It just didn’t work in here.
And it is so tall that I would put things up on top, and then forget they were up there. Which is what must have happened with these Twizzlers that I didn’t even realize were up there until I saw them in this picture:
Under my once-upon-a-time-I-was-a-worktable, I found this poor, forgotten creature: a bead board, circa 1582. Yep, they made bead boards way back then. They made this one, at least.
Here’s some stuff that never even found a way out of the bags:
And if it did make it out of the bag, it looked like this…it was hard to remember what I even had…which is probably how I’ve ended up with such an insane amount of floral stuff.
This was my shipping department:
And this is my cat, who didn’t bother lifting a paw to help during any of this.
So, finally, last January, I got so tired of this atrocity of a room, I just started taking everything out and loading it into my bedroom. My poor bedroom. This is just a small section of what it looked like for months. I had to do a flying leap just to get into my bed at night.
I hadn’t intended to paint, but once the room was empty, it was really hard to keep ignoring the ugly color on the walls. I said to myself, “Self, you really should make this room a little prettier since you spend half your life in it.” (I really did say those words to myself. That’s what happens when you spend half your life in a craft room.)
A New Hope…
The number one priority was to have actual clear work space again. Ginormous computer armoire monstrosity needed to go. Getting that thing out of the room proved to be a little easier said than done, but luckily I only got it stuck in the doorway once. And as it turned out, it wasn’t really that hard to scale when I needed to escape from the room and get a beer to help me stop panicking and figure out how to get it unstuck.
(Too bad there are no photos of that.)
I bought cheap Ikea tabletops to go around 3 walls of the room, to replace the desk. This is how I figured things out:
Now I had lots of table space, so next up was figuring out how to store all my stuff so that it didn’t take over the room again.
Pegboards!
I hung 3 of them on the wall. I got white pegboards, and spray painted the hangers white so they would look prettier.
How perfect!
I got so excited with the spray paint that I decided to spray paint all my ugly black office organizers:
And then I got REALLY carried away, and spray painted a file cabinet that I got on clearance for $15:
I put some shelves on the wall, and recycled a bunch of tin cans into storage for some of my craft supplies.
I re-organized all of my fabric:
I made curtains to go around the bottoms of the tables, and hid my old rubbermaid drawers behind them for more storage. After making the curtains, I just used strips of velcro to attach them under the tabletops.
And then, my very favorite part of the room…I made a magnet board for all of my beads. I bought some cheap tin cans with clear lids, and glued magnets to the back. Then I bought a piece of sheet aluminum at Lowes, but it was ugly, so I decoupaged it with a face that I will never get sick of looking at. (sigh..)
(sighhhh……..)
An over the door shelf in the tiny closet is now holding all my paint and tons of other stuff…
…and that way, I could store all my shipping supplies and photography props inside the closet:
Here it is, all put together…the work space side:
The office/shipping/photography side:
Wait just one minute…what is that?
Don’t be distracted by this utterly blatant advertising, folks. Which isn’t as blatant as I would like it to be in this picture and so I am pointing it out to make sure you see it. (Sheesh, that is just unbelievable.)
(theornamentgirl.com!!)
The fabric storage side:
You might be thinking, “That is a ridiculous amount of fabric/ribbon/flowers/other craft supplies, Staci.” Yes. If that is even possible. But now it is a well-organized and easily accessible ridiculous amount of fabric/ribbon/flowers/other craft supplies.
Eight months of craft room renovation later, and this one is still doing absolutely nothing…
what an awesome room. i was telling my bff a few years ago that i wanted a craft room for my hurricane of stuff. so crazy we think alike. geez…we must be related! lol. i told her i want one wall for fabric/ribbon/all ornament supplies. wall =2 for beads/jewelry stuff. wall \=3 as a sewing table. wall=4 for scrapbooking. put kitchen shelves without cabinets under to place roll out plastic carts and then cover it with a curtain. (i like the velcro thing. i was going to attach a thin cafe rod across the rim and run the curtains like a shower curtain. but i like your idea better. less work). i dont want tiles in the room so i can just rrroooolllll my desk chair from wall to wall. spin in circles if i want! the fabric wall is AWESOME!!! i can imagine you just frolicking in your room. I would be! and yes, i have a lazy cat, Mr. Boo Boo. 15lbs of nothing but attitude.
congrats on finishing your room. its amazing! when i buy my own home, i too will have my craft room. if a guy can have a Man Cave or Dude Room, so can we!
Thanks, Linda! And good luck with your “woman cave”…it’ll be worth the wait! P.S. I wasn’t sure if the velcro would work, so I made the pocket for a curtain rod at the top of the curtains, just in case I needed to attach rods under the tables, like you were saying. The velcro has ended up working fine, though! :)
I love your new craft room and lazy cat! What a long way you’ve come!
Thank you, Chrissy! :)
Love your room – fabulous fabric storage idea – you can be proud of this room!
Thanks so much, Anne Marie! :)
I love looking at other people’s craft rooms. I looked at lots of them and then I made my own too. I have photos of mine on my blog. Although, they do evolve over time don’t they? Mine has much more personality now. I love your color scheme! Great job!
Thank you! I love looking at other craft rooms too, and there are some photos of them on the internet that are absolutely to die for… just having the space and organization to work is so awesome though, isn’t it? I’m going to go check out yours now. :D
Holy cow what a makeover! That’s pretty awesome & I imagine it took a lot of work! I really like your magnetic board (googling them to make one myself is how I came across your blog) and how you covered the plastic drawers with fabric and tables.
Thanks, Angela! Yes, it took a TON of work and time, but it has been so worth it in the end. I feel so much more productive now, too. Good luck with your magnetic board! :)
OK, I have been looking at images on google for “turquoise craft rooms” and yours came up and then I found your site. THIS is the color I NEED for my craft room (still in the very beginning stage, heck it still has toys in it, didn’t I tell you? I am taking over the toy room – do I still get mother of the year award?) can you give me the brand and color… I too, have black and white pieces I am putting together and will do a blk/white pattern of some sort…thinking of tiolle but I like zebra too….anyways, the possibilities are endless. Cant wait to see your ornaments… I didnt get that far yet… still looking at your room…. love it!!!!!
Happy Holidays
Hollie
Hi Hollie! Sorry for the delay in my response…I’ve been on vacation for the last week and a half…I was actually out of the country, so had no internet access at all. :D The paint I used in my craft room is Valspar (from Lowe’s) and the color is Crystal Aqua. It’s very bright, but it works since my room is so tiny, and the white tables and shelves helped to break it up. It tried out a few different shades of turquoise, and this was definitely my favorite! I hope it works for you too, and thanks for the compliment!!
Thanks for sharing the whole process. Just a little organizing is a crafty thing to do in and of itself. Since crafters are always revolving so should our rooms!! The transformation is great! I need 2 more walls, we have a big “hobby” room for everyone and I have been warned not to buy any more craft furniture…..I think instead my husband should just build me a whole studio so I am out of the way LOL!
I agree! :D
Thanks for posting this, as I have been trying to figure out how to organize my “man-cave”. Right now, all of my fabric, paints, sewing machine, and crap are in boxes and a rolling toolbox, and I hate it.
I like your idea for getting extra storage under the table without making it looking tacky or cluttered.
Thank you! Good luck with your craft room! :)
Thank you so much for this. I have hope for my room now. I was feeling rather defeated about ever getting it done.
Love, love your crafting space. So inspiring. And love the blue and white!
I have a whole half of my basement for what is supposed to be my “studio” that is full of boxes and, no matter how hard I’ve tried, I couldn’t find the ambition to get it started. I think I’m going to print out your makeover pictures and tack them on the walls to get me going. Hopefully, it will work.
Now all I need is someone to hang a door at the top of the stairs to keep my cats up there so they don’t stand by the door and cry because they can’t see me. Anyone have an idea of how to hang things on a concrete wall?
M2ML
I am SO glad I found this blog post! I searched google for 10×10 craft room…clicked on the link to this post…and angels started singing…the heavens parted and all that! It is so hard to figure out how to organize things in such a small place and most craft rooms you search for make me green with envy because of the amount of space they have. I make boutqiue type items but absolutely love the table space (i’ll probably do an L-shape bc i have a double door closet) and the hidden storage/organization! My husband is gonna make a lot of the items because for some reason they have yet to build an IKEA in Missouri (and I know how amazing they are after living near one in Maryland)!! One question I have is if the entire underside of your workspace/desk have those drawer bins?
I love your craft room! We are soon to move to a 3-4 bedroom home, and this will be the perfect time to unpack those craft boxes and set them up properly. I did click on the IKEA TABLES that you referenced to, and was unable to locate them. Would you happen to have an item number or know how I could find them? Thanks so much for all you do for us crafters.
Diane
[…] (Here is what it looked like. ) […]
What a job to see where you started to the finished product. So much working area. For sure, you are in your glory making MAGIC. Good job! Holly
thanks, Holly!