Craft Studio in the making

Sometime long, long ago in January, when the fear of 40 people coming to our house to celebrate little man's 7th birthday set in, I decided to gut a junk room an unused room in our house to the studs and rebuild it.


I had this thought oh, about 12 days before the party. Lovely! I knew that the hubs and I could get it done with the help of my mom, and sister and brother though so we got to work. We busted our butts trying to get it ready in time. And we did. We made it with about 9 minutes to spare. But we made it and that is all that counts.

Then after the party died and everyone left, I was just so exhausted that the room sat...and sat...and sat... and sat... and accumulated everything that didn't have a place in the rest of our home. Then one day I looked up and my supposed to be craft studio was full of junk again. Someone please don't call Hoarders.



So, I set out on a mission to get this mess cleared out and my craft studio in operation. It's not fully functional yet, but I'm working on it.

Obviously storage is my biggest issue. I mean where do you store 13 canvases waiting to be covered or painted? Or where do you store all the random wreaths, and frames and candleholders and everything else I pick up at the Thrift Store waiting to be transformed? It's not like it fits neatly in a drawer or in a decent size Rubbermaid container. Not to mention all the millions of scrapbooking supplies and papers I have and the sewing notions and the paint and fabric... ahhhh!!!! So, I moved out everything that I could, and even put some of my Thrift Store treasures in the dining room that has been converted to my yard sale holding spot for the time being. I'm sorry. There will be no photos of THAT mess.

I started with a desk that we built that I shared here.




Functional Computer Area- Check.

Then I found a little cabinet at the Thrift Store to sit next to my computer for my Cricut. I still need to spray paint it, but it seems like every day there is a chance for afternoon showers so I keep putting it off. Luckily, 12x12 paper fits in it and the doors just barely stay closed so it houses most of my scrapbooking albums and papers. It's a little bit cramped in the corner, but it works.


Functional scrapbooking storage- Check.

Since little man hasn't needed a changing table in 5 years or so, I brought his changing table in here to store things like paint, adhesives, sewing notions and little random stuff that will fit into divided containers in the drawers. I got that canvas hanging above it from Canvas People and found that frame at a yard sale for $0.50. It works perfectly for the space.

Random craft supplies storage- Check.

So the storage situation is getting better but the walls are still pretty bare. Other than that canvas, all I have on the walls is my washer wall art that I made here. I still love it by the way. I'm rummaging around the house trying to find something to put on the wall and I find this thing.




I have no idea what it is or where it came from. That's sad isn't it? As a matter of fact, I have 2 of them. Bizarre! It looks like it could be a shelf and its a great size so I nailed in 2 sawtooth hangers on the back and hung it up to see if it was sturdy enough to actually be a shelf.


Lo and behold, it was! Yay! So I gave it a good sanding and cleaning and added 3 screws in the joint for a little more support.



Then I stained it with my favorite go-to stain.


And added 2 of these little eye hooks to suspend a dowel from to store my ribbon. More storage- 2 points for the wooden shelf thingy.



I grabbed all the ribbon I could find at the moment and hung it up. It's sturdy. It's more storage. It fills my long run of bare wall. I consider this a success!





Uh, who needs that many paint brushes? I'm not Picasso or anything!?


I love the little containers! The one that looks empty actually has bobbins and thread in it. Does it look weird looking empty? I couldn't find anything that was tall to fill it with.

Now, once I can get all this mess these supplies cleaned off my work table


and find a place for all these projects on my to-do list,


and a little accessorizing, I should be good to go.

It's far from complete really, but I'm off to a good start. If you are a thrift store shopper, what do you do with all your goodies? Do you have any great storage tricks to share?

Check out the link parties where I am sharing this week! You'll find tons of great ideas!