Craft Room Reveal! (pt. 1)

For part 2 of my craft tour, click here; for part 3, click here; and for a 2015 update, click here!

In our new house the majority of our main living space is on the top floor; but there is one room that gives my kitchen a run for the money as my favorite spot: my craft room!

I’ve enjoyed various forms of papercrafting since I was young.  My mom made (and still makes) her own cards for special occasions and I remember the first time we experimented with embossing powder years ago.  We didn’t have a special heat gun so we took turns holding the paper over the stove trying not to burn the paper (or our fingers).  I’ve played around with intricate origami, scrapbooking, card-making, and quilling over the years but was never really able to work with any sort of regularity because my craft piles just existed in whatever space happened to be available at the time.  In our previous rental I did create a little craft nook in our dining room but it was a short term solution and didn’t really work.

However, it did, along with Pinterest, really make me crave a private place to craft!  So when we were starting house plans I requested a craft room and my amazing husband was totally supportive!  My craft room is attached to my music studio downstairs which allows me to run in and stamp a few images or cut some paper while waiting for a student to arrive for a lesson. We moved into the house in late August but the craft room-to-be sat as a dumping ground for unopened moving boxes for several months.  Early on we decided that winter break would be the perfect time to clean up that room and get a craft room started so that gave me four months to decide on a final plan.  I was fairly sure, for budget reasons, that I’d be going with IKEA furniture but it took awhile to nail down a functional layout.  The day after Christmas I headed to IKEA with my very helpful (but somewhat reluctant) husband and brother-in-law.  We spent about an hour and a half gathering everything on my list and ended up with three carts full of supplies. We spent the rest of that day painting the room.  I tried to stick with fairly neutral colors throughout the house but the craft room was where I let myself go wild.   Early on I had decided on a color scheme of teal, coral, and white for the room.  For the walls I chose Sherwin-Williams Tantalizing Teal which is a beautiful and bright tropical color. The next day I began assembling the IKEA furniture.  I generally enjoy the challenge of putting together furniture but I was pretty tired of my allen wrench by the time I was done.  This was the end of the first day: It’s changed a little since then as I’ve removed the small Lack table and moved the square table off the wall so that there’s room to move all the way around it.  I also picked up a sewing machine table and installed a pegboard for greater organization and efficiency.  A few Pinterest craft projects provided some art and interest to the walls.  In a future post I’ll be a little more detailed with various parts of the room but without further ado, here’s my craft room!

(I knew I’d find a use for my wide-angle camera lens)!  The room is about 16’x10′.  On the opposite side of the room (that you can’t see) there’s a door to my music studio, a door leading out to the backyard, and my old Baldwin spinet piano.

From the left, on this side of the room, there’s an IKEA Expedit that holds most of my crafting supplies.  On top of the Expedit is a storage area for some of my card-making supplies and my scrapbook albums.  To the right is my pegboard that holds general crafting supplies and my sewing supplies.  On the far right is a ribbon corkboard that holds examples of my handmade cards.  In the bottom left you’ll see my main sewing table and paper cutting table.  I do my cutting and scoring for card-making on the side of that table closest to the Expedit and the other side is generally for cutting fabric.  On the bottom right you’ll see my sewing machine.  The table is easily portable and can be moved away from the wall when in use.

This side of my room is devoted mainly to scrapbooking and card-making.  We brought down my old TV/DVD player (Law and Order: SVU marathons are awesome backgrounds for card-making sessions!) which is really nice when I’m down there for several hours.  In the area below the TV I store some of my original stamping supplies: wood-mounted rubber stamps, embellishments, punches, and blank cards.  To the right of that is my three-tiered clear stamp and stencil clip-it-up.  Next to that I store my markers and glitter (you can never have enough glitter).  Above that there are two IKEA boxes with different watercolor mediums and extra ink pads.  To the right of the marker storage I store my pigment inks.  The beige-looking blanket next to the pigment pads is my kitten’s napping spot.  It’s an old Simon Says Stamp card kit box with two pillowcases wrapped around it to provide some padding.  Rogue LOVES that box.  The teal colored rectangle behind her bed is my Silhouette cutting machine.  I started off with a Cricut Expression 2 but I much prefer the Silhouette.  To the right of my lamp are my Stampin’ Up and Distress ink pads.

Nothing cuter than a cat in a box! There are a couple small things to finish but it’s close enough that I wanted to go ahead and share it!  To complete the room I want to add another Lack shelf above the card display board for some personal photo frames.  I also have some word art to add the wall to the left of the pegboard.  Finally, I’m currently just moving my music studio chair back and forth while I search for the perfect crafting chairs.  I’m interested in a low-backed stool that swivels but does not have wheels.  So far I haven’t had any luck…if you know of any, please let me know!  Anyway, thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoyed seeing my crafting space!