Friday, December 16, 2011

My New Craft Room





Hello! As promised, here is the long awaited post of My Craft Room! This room has been a dream of mine for over 20 years! I had to wait until the first kid got married, and the last kid went off to college before we could build this room. I've been designing it and dreaming about it for 20 years, and I'm happy to say it is finally done!

It's a very large space that sits under the balcony of my upstairs family room. It is 24 feet long and 16 feet wide. You can see the entrance to it in the second photo above. The fabric separates the room from the sun room, but it also serves to help keep the room heated in winter. On very cold days, I can close the curtains and just heat the craft room and not the entire sun room.

The second picture is what you see when you enter the room. Everything is custom made by my husband. The desk is HUGE! It's 97 1/2 inches long and 49 1/2 inches high. I work primarily in this space so I had my husband build it BIG! I decided to stain the desk a dark walnut and paint the cabinets an antique white.

Although most of you know me as a paper crafter, I do a lot of different crafts and so the room has to function for a variety of different crafts. Below is a picture of a little cart just on the inside wall which holds a lot of tiny fabric pieces for quilting and sewing.




Here's the left side of the room. This would be my 'Paper-Crafting' side. It holds all my supplies for paper crafting in the cupboards and underneath the counter.


This Cricut Stand is the only furniture in the room that was store bought. I purchased it at JoAnn's Fabrics and Crafts. I use it to hold my large 12 x 12 solid color paper. It's also my embossing station.


I had my husband leave some openings in the shelving for decorative reasons, but the decorations still provide storage. I bought dozens of these little baskets at JoAnn's, this one holds buttons. And the silver tins are loaded with Prima Flowers. If your wondering about the greenery, that's only there because it's Christmas, and I decorate every room in my home for Christmas. The decorating theme of the room is birds; since the room is connected to my sun room where my 'live birds' are and there is a view of my garden where the outdoor birds are; so you will see lots of subtle bird images as we move about the room.

The next two photos show my 'Cuttlebug Station'. The Cuttlebug sits permanently on the counter top because I use it everyday. In the cabinetry above are folders of all the Cuttlebug dies and embossing folders I own. I also keep my 'Bind it All' and 'Coluzzle' here along with other miscellaneous things.



I decided not to have any lower cabinetry in my craft room, and I just hung curtains. I wanted to have a space to keep all my rolling paper totes and other large items hidden. This beautiful blue material is 100% silk, and would you believe I purchased it for only $3.00 a yard at JoAnn's? It was one of their red tag home decor fabrics that happened to be 50% off the already reduced clearance price.


This little compartment is one of those little tool chests you can purchase at a hardware store. It's perfect for holding all the little things crafter's use. I keep it right on top of my counter top where everything is in easy reach.



Here is how I store my clear acrylic stamps. They are just in baskets inside a cupboard, sorted by manufacturer.





I store my ink pads in the same basket. Each basket holds a different color group.







I bought all these different sized paper mache bird boxes from JoAnn's. The colors were the inspiration for the colors in the room. Every box holds fabric. I probably have enough fabric to open my own fabric store.



I have about 7 of these little plastic boxes, I keep them underneath the counter on top of the filing cabinet. They hold all my brads. You can find these plastic boxes in the beading department of JoAnn's.

This is how I store I cards after I make them. It's a large CD/DVD plastic tote purchased at JoAnn's. It comes with dividers, but I added more to separate all the cards by theme (like birthday, anniversary, etc.) I keep this box under the counter top too.


This is how I store my 8 1/2 by 11 color card stock. The filing cabinets fit nicely under the counter top.


All my ribbon and trim extra pieces are wrapped on small pieces of chipboard and placed in baskets and sorted by color. This basket contains my white lace. Nothing goes to waste when your a paper-crafter. Most of these items are just leftovers from sewing projects, which will now probably go on a card someday. I'm not a hoarder by nature, except in my craft room. I throw nothing away, because I will never know if I will be able to re-purpose or re-use the item again.

This cupboard contains all my embellishments like trims, Prima Flowers, and dew drops.


Now we are in the center of the room, which starts the 'sewing portion' of the room. Here is my custom built sewing center. The sewing machine sits on a shelf which actually pulls out from the wall so if I ever need to sew something that has a lot of material (like curtains, or a quilt), I can just slide the shelf out, so the material will flow behind the machine. Above the machine I have more decorative boxes which contain fabric, and some cute sewing themed decorations. There are drawers on the lower part of the cabinetry which holds all my sewing notions.





Opposite my sewing station is my desk. This is a close up of my desk, what it looks like everyday. I had my husband build a little wooden wall to cover the front of the desk so you can't see the mess when you walk into the room. I love to have everything I use everyday in easy reach, but I don't want to see the clutter from the sun room.



This is my view when I sit at my desk. I have a plasma T.V. hanging in the corner, and I can also see out into my garden.


There is not one bit of unwasted space in this room! My husband even built shelving underneath the desk for storage. It holds more papers, chipboard, glitters, wooden stamps, etc. Crafter's can never have enough storage!


The right side of the room is mostly for sewing and flower arrangement supplies, although I still have a lot of paper-crafting supplies over there too! This is how I store my ribbon spools. I bought the Ribbon Holders at JoAnn's. They are only available for purchase around Christmas time. Underneath the counter holds more fabric, and unfinished sewing projects and floral supplies.



This is how I store SOME of my Spellbinder's Nestabilities. I still don't like it. I really wish that company would sell their Nestabilities in CD cases to begin with, or provide an effective storage solution for their customers to purchase. The CD cases I have, aren't real CD cases, they are the single computer disc kind, so the Nesites don't fit well inside them. I can't find real emty CD holders that are inexpensive. I tried puting my Nesties inside portable CD holders too, but it gets too thick too fast. So, I just struggle with this system for now, but this still isn't all my Nesties. Alot are in their original packaging in desk drawers.

These are all my cutting mats and rulers which sit next to the sewing station.



Here is a closeup of one of the ribbon spool containers.


Another decorative shelving unit.



Here's how I keep alot of my embellishments. They are all sorted into baskets and put into the upper cupboards.


Inside of embellishment cabinet.



This is the far right side of the craft room wall. I have more display cabinetry. That is one of my scrapbook pages on my shelf. I have a Susan Winget Calendar on the wall that matches all the Susan Winget paper mache bird boxes.



This was one of my Christmas Presents that I bought for myself on Black Friday. It holds a large assortment of Gutterman Thread. I'd love to hang it on the wall, but I don't have any wall space left, so it sits atop an antique sewing machine.


This is what the room looks like if you enter it from the right side.



I display just a small portion of my wood rubber stamps in these antique printer's trays that my husband mounted to the wall for me. The buttons and large scissors were purchased at JoAnn's.


Below is my Cutting and Scoring Station. It sits on top of an old desk that my daughter won't let me throw out because she 'might want it someday'. So I covered it with leftover blue silk to hide it.




I still use the drawers of the desk though! No space goes to waste!


I hope I gave you some ideas for storing your paper crafting things! I know my room is extreme, but I waited a long time for it. Like many of you, I started crafting on my dining room table, and my storage space was what I could squeeze in some little totes and shove in a tiny closet. Then as the years went by, I just kept 'accumulating things', and gradually went from crafting on my dining room table, to crafting in a large walk in closet. I stayed 'in the closet' for about 12 years, and finally was able to have my own room. So for all the young crafter's out there who are frustrated having to work on a dining room table and always having to clean up a mess instead of being able to just leave it and walk away; take heart! I know how you feel! I was there myself! Someday, you too will have your own craft room!

Have a great day! Amy













































































22 comments:

  1. Oh my heavens.. I am so jealous. I LOVE this Amy. We just put the last coat of paint on my first ever craft room. I too love to sew and other types of crafts. Right now all my crafty stuff is in the garage. It is such a pain. I can't wait to decorate mine. What I love most in this room is your Gutteman Thread holder and that antique sewing machine. I have an antique one too. It as made in Rockford, IL in the 1920s. I treasure it. This room was well worth the wait. Great job. My hubby said he did not look forward to my room being done because he fears he will never see me again. haha.

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  2. WOW and I thought I had a great space :-) and you are so right, we can never have enough storage.
    I have two areas, one for papercraft and one for fabric crafts, so I too am spoilt.
    Blessings
    Maxine

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  3. Wow wow wow!!!!! I'm drooling on my keyboard! Turning several yukky shades of green! Girl, you have a dream room - actually you have a whole dream home! Your DH is quite talented! I'm impressed! Thanks so much for sharing :) I'm dying to know where the rest of your wooden stamps are! Hugs...

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  4. How amazing! Congrats. What a long wait but, it looks so worth it.
    It looks like 3 people could work in there and never have trouble bumping into each other. LOL! Enjoy.
    Hugs, Heide

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  5. Gorgeous room, Amy!! I love your use of space! Wow!

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  6. Wow wow wow Amy, can it get any more fabulous?? I don't think so. LOVE it!! I need to bookmark this so I can look here if I ever decide on creating my own craft room (or rather craft area since I don't have the space for a whole room). Thank you so much for sharing!

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  7. What a fun tour of your studio. How fabulous you've been able to create something you've been dreaming and planning for so long. That's the most amazing desk ever. Happy creating.

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  8. You have such a beautiful, functional, uncluttered studio! Congratulations and the fruition of a 20 year dream! The things I especially like are the sun room lighting, the curtains on the doorways, the giant wooden desk, and the various ways you hide the clutter.

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  9. 20 years of dreaming and planning have paid off. Your studio is spacious and well organized and what a pleasure it must be to craft there. You have enough room to hold workshops should you ever become ambitious to do this sort of thing.
    Happy Crafting.

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  10. Wonderful space, you planned well and it looks like the results is: Success! You must be in there all the time by the sounds of it! Thanks for sharing! Happy Creating, Cindy

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  11. Well, they do say that "good things come to those who wait," and it looks like you got a super-good craft room! You must have so much fun in your new creative space. Thanks for sharing.

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  12. Hello Amy. What a fabulous studio you have and after waiting 20 years too. Fabulous space for many people. Thanks so much for the tour. Karen.x

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  13. Amy, I am so in love with your room! I'm a paper crafter/scrapbooker as well and I have gotten so many ideas to use in my space. So much inspiration! And that desk! It's beautiful. I hope you'll visit my basement studio if you have time at A Scrapmom's Musings

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  14. Congrats on seeing a 20 year dream come true. Awesome creative space, very beautiful, thank you for sharing.

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  15. Oh what a lovely space. I love the curtins and the sun room.
    Before I read the post I looked at the sale stamps. I am interested.
    I'll check the shop page first though.
    You have an amazing space and you do have some great ideas.
    Thanks for sharing your space.
    Have a wonderful Wednesday.

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  16. Amy I am so happy for you! I know what is like to dream of something for so long and finally have it happen! The room is fabulous and holds so much!! You must really love spending time in there. Thank you so much for joining the party and letting us all share in your happy reveal!!!
    xo,
    Karen

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  17. It's obvious I'm running late to the party, but I am so glad to be here now. I couldn’t miss this opportunity to see your incredible brand new studio. You really ARE a paper crafter. I was really surprised and impressed.

    I tried to enlarge the sewing machine, but was still not sure I was seeing a New Home. My grandmother had a New Home and now it is mine. They have the drop down leaf when the machine is inside the unit, as I'm sure you know, if you own one. BTW, I love that thread. That must have been ONE great black Friday!

    Thanks for sharing this reveal AND incredible space. I'm still swooning and drooling.

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  18. What a fabulous room Amy! All the storage and cabinet space is just amazing!
    Thanks for sharing!

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  19. Wow! You have so much place . . . you could throw a crafting party:)
    I am so happy that your long awaited dream came true. That is the same way I feel about my space. Dreams do come true:) I am your newest follower and hope that you will visit and follow me, too:) I love making new blogging friends.
    Your newest blogging sister,
    Connie :)

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  20. Wow! What a fabulous room. You have done a wonderful job setting up your space! So organized and pretty. thank you so much for sharing. I so enjoyed my visit.

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  21. I knew it would be great! Thank you for telling me about it. I also started following you on bloglovin'. Xoxo Celia

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