But, who's counting? Besides Bob, that is. He reminded me of the total square footage of my craft room the other day when the woman that cuts his hair said she wouldn't mind having a craft room in her house, but doesn't have the space for it. He said, "Well, how would you like a craft room that's 565 square feet?" She said, "Whoa."
We built this room a few years ago in part of our unfinished basement area. For me, it was a dream come true, as I'd spent years designing this room in my head. It was fun to watch it all come together... a total labor of love.
So, here it is... in all it's pinkness. It's the one room in the house (besides Bryn's), that I went girly. Really girly. You see CREATE as you enter the room. I put letters on stretch canvas. They were actually cardstock letters in my scrapping stash that I blew up on the printer & then Modge Podged onto the canvas. It was a very cheap way to add visual interest to that big plain wall...
I keep this set of bins here to store Bryn's ginormous family of Webkinz, as well as scrapping supplies that I no longer use. I call it our "share bins." I really do try to get rid of unused stash regularly and I make Bryn do the same... emphasis on the "make" part. She doesn't really like to keep all her scrapping stuff organized.
One of my favorite things about the room is the faux black board that I painted using a magnetic paint. I taped it off & then painted a white border around it so it appeared to be a chalk board hanging there. It holds Bryn's art work. The chair is for Bob. He sits there at night while I'm in here & watches the flat screen TV across the room.
I wanted built-in shelves to store my scrapbooks. I can see now that I'm going to have to do some rearranging. The basket of mini books is getting way out of hand & spilling over. I have 15 scrapbooks (3 of them are upstairs in the living room), and they are all bursting at the seams, filled as much as I possibly could! We all know there will be MORE, so eventually there won't be any fun stuff on the top shelf... just more books!
My work area is on the left... Bryn's desk is on the right. I had the 2 areas split up by the small wall to define the work spaces & hung a clock up there, so I know how much time I've lost track of while in here. LOL
The white table in the middle of the room is where I do most of my work... when I haven't ended up on the floor, that is. Usually when I'm in the midst of a kit or some project, the table is a huge mound of stuff leaving me no room to create. And I pity the fool that tries to step around my landmine of stuff all over the floor. LOL.
I have 2 Clip-it-Ups on the table, my paper cutter & a pile or 2 of paper that I want to use in the near future. The pile seems to grow constantly, so I eventually have to tell myself to just put it away for now & get over it. Underneath I keep the trash can & a recycle bin...
We have a 3rd work area under the TV. Our other laptop sits there, along with another printer & my sewing machine.
I hung peg board (painted the same green color as the wall behind it) above this area that I call my wrapping station. It's where I store my wrapping paper, ribbons for gifts, gift bags, etc. The peg board is an extra place to hang things, like scissors, tape, glue gun, packing materials, etc. I have a huge card spinner that I confiscated from my sister, a smaller card spinner & my baby blue typewriter...
Our craft room has been featured on a local TV news program twice. You can check out the first time right here.
The cabinet doors open to a pull out drawer that has a bin to hold all my gift bags. Next to that I keep extra school supplies and small gift items that I like to have on hand, just incase I need a quick last minute gift.
I wanted extra long drawers to hold rolls of wrapping paper. The top drawer holds ribbon & decorative items for wrapping gifts, the bottom 2 drawers hold rolls of wrapping paper.
Here's views of some of my other storage ideas in the room for my scrapping supplies. ..
My magazines are something else I try to put in the recycle bin reguarly. I'll go back through old ones, tear out pages that inpsire me & put them in a binder. I can tend to hoard magazines, too... fashion, scrapbooking, interior design, etc...
My paper collection is small compared to some (see below). It doesn't look like a lot, but I've got it down to what I think I might potentially use. If I don't think I might use it, it's in the share bins. Out with the old, in with the new. I have given away boxes full of product to friends & sold a HUGE bin of paper at a garage sale one year. That paper bin was a popular spot at the sale, too. Finally someone came in toward the end of the day & just said, "How much for the whole thing?" Yes!
I keep all my SRM Stickers in an 8 1/2x11 3-ring binder, with all the sets sorted by type into page protectors. There's too many of them to put on my Clip-it-Up, so it works better to keep them in their own area.
Finally came up with a storage solution for my ever-growing collection of punches. Most of the punches fit in this door shoe bag holder. The extra large punches are in a drawer (a very deep drawer... plenty of room for more ;-)...
The ribbon storage isn't great, but I manage to find what I need anyway...
A box in this drawer holds all my ink pads. Then I have my bigger stamp sets in here too...
Individual stamps in bottom drawer...
I have extra long hanging files in a couple drawers & keep my "scraps" filed by color. I went through & purged this file drawer a few days ago & got rid of an entire recycle bin of scraps. I keep the tiniest pieces of paper... thinking I might use it some day. It's pathetic. Out with the old, Deana, out with the old...
I have a few drawer organizers like this one, in some of the drawers...
Bryn has all her own stash, hanging files, etc. I won't open any of those... too scary. And does having her own stash keep her out of my stuff? No. She thinks I'm her own personal Michaels store. LOL
I spend a lot of time in here, actually we all do. It's really as much a family room as it is a craft room.
If you have any ideas for fun ways to organize in a craft room, please let me know! I love to see how other people store all their supplies!
